Newly released documents revealing Dominic Perrottet was informed a senior public servant had been chosen for a lucrative trade job in New York that eventually went to John Barilaro show the premier "misled" parliament, Labor says.
Government documents finally provided on Tuesday to the parliamentary inquiry into how the former deputy premier got the US trade commissioner role, reveal Mr Perrottet as treasurer received a ministerial briefing on the chosen candidate last year.
The documents indicate Mr Barilaro, then-premier Gladys Berejiklian and then-investment minister Stuart Ayres were also informed by Investment NSW in August that Jenny West was the preferred candidate recommended by the independent recruitment panel.
The briefing note urged "the selection of Ms Jenny West as the successful candidate for the STIC (Senior Trade & Investment Commissioners) - Americas role".
Labor finance spokesman David Mookhey described the new trove of documents as "devastating" for the government.
"They show that Dominic Perrottet and Stuart Ayres were both told that Jenny West was the best person for the New York job," he told reporters.
"Equally there is a strong case now for Mr Ayres and Mr Perrottet to answer for why they didn't mislead the parliament.
"The documents indicate very strongly that Dominic Perrottet and Stuart Ayres knowingly and deliberately misled the parliament on June 22 this year when they said that there was no suitable candidate found in the first process."
Mr Mookhey said the government had "waged a four-week" war blocking the paperwork's release until Tuesday, with more than 100 documents still marked as top secret.
"We do want to get to the bottom of the saga because there are so many questions here the public want answers to," he said.
The new documents show Mr Ayres signed off on the briefing on August 17, acknowledging "the successful candidate is Ms Jenny West".
The document said a meeting would be organised "between the premier and Ms West to discuss priorities for international trade and investment for NSW" prior to her relocation to New York.
Mr Ayres distanced himself from the newly released documents, saying the ministerial brief was "noted" by him, but was not a brief that "seeks a decision from me".
"I would also like to make clear that this brief does not represent the end of the recruitment process. That could only be determined by the CEO of Investment NSW as this is public service appointment," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This is consistent with testimony provided by the Investment NSW CEO and General-Counsel ... and the information I provided to the Legislative Assembly during question time."
Ms West previously told the parliamentary inquiry she was offered the job and subsequently lost her senior job at Investment NSW after it was withdrawn.
Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown told her the role "will be a present for someone", Ms West told the inquiry.
The plum trade job eventually went to Mr Barilaro, who last month relinquished the role amid a public controversy, saying it had become untenable.
The government has been under pressure for three weeks to provide the upper house inquiry with a swathe of sensitive documents about Mr Barilaro's appointment to the $500,000 taxpayer-funded trade job.
The premier was asked last month in parliament about how Mr Barilaro came to secure the role, saying the first recruitment process did not identify a suitable candidate, leading to a second recruitment process being undertaken.
The NSW upper house has been recalled to sit on Friday in an effort to obtain documents in order to further examine the appointment, and that will proceed unless all the requested documents are provided.
The committee has already triggered Standing Order 52 to compel the government to hand over the documents.
The issue is casting a shadow over Mr Perrottet's 10-day trade trip to Asia, as he faces a daily barrage of questions about the controversy.
Public Accountability Committee chair Cate Faehrmann has invited Mr Barilaro to make a written submission to the inquiry and indicated he would be called as a witness at a later date.
Mr Barilaro says he wants to testify at the inquiry and Labor says it has been waiting for all the relevant documents before calling the former Nationals leader.
