“Then he said, ‘That’s it; this is the job for when you take the bitch out of this place.'” I replied to Mr. Barilaro and said, you are leaving this site “.
Connell stated that Barilaro told him, “I don’t want to go to London, me, I’m going to New York … I’ll have one put in New York, this is where I am.” [sic].
“The conversation in relation to this matter ended then,” the statement says. The letter has been referred to the surveillance of corruption, which is already being considered if it investigates the circumstances of Barilaro’s appointment.
On Wednesday, Barilaro rejected Connell’s claims in a statement issued shortly after the presentation was made public.
“The conversation he has recalled is fictitious, false and only serves as a reminder of why we had to separate,” Barilaro said.
“If this research is genuine in their intention to understand the process and the truth by which I was appointed, I would surely be called upon to provide this detail immediately.
“Continuous feeding by dripping selected information from research into the public domain goes against all procedural fairness.”
Since then, Barilaro has retired from the role.
Connell is a longtime Liberal employee and a former deputy state director of the NSW Liberal Party. He previously worked for former NSW Prime Minister John Fahey, and as an energy policy adviser in the office of Treasurer Matt Kean after leaving Barilaro’s office. He is now a private consultant.
In a statement, Perrottet said he had numerous discussions with Barilaro and Ayres in 2019 about the establishment of Global NSW.
“At no point in these discussions was it ever raised that the former deputy prime minister wanted to hold a post as trade commissioner,” he said.
Ayres said Barilaro did not indicate an interest in a position as trade commissioner at any stage of the development of NSW’s overall strategy.
“I reject in the strongest possible terms any suggestion or inference other than hiring for the [state trade and investment commissioner] The role of America was orchestrated to deliver the role to Mr. Barilaro, ”he said, adding that the suggestion was“ incredibly offensive ”.
John Barilaro and Stuart Ayres.Credits: Rhett Wyman, Janie Barrett
In the three-page statement released by the investigation Wednesday, Connell said his work with Barilaro ended after a mutual agreement “due to the fact that Mr. Barilaro stopped following my advice and sought external advice. “.
Connell wrote that he believed in following due process of good governance and considered the alleged incident to be of interest or value to the parliamentary inquiry.
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“I had no involvement, knowledge or discussion with any person, in relation to this particular matter, before or proceeding to this‘ isolated ’discussion with Mr. Barilaro,” he wrote.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said Connell’s statement was worrying because it suggested that “the selection process was manipulated and there has been a cover-up for a month to prevent people in NSW from gaining access to the real information “.
Opposition leader in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, said Barilaro was informed in advance that the statement was being published and welcomed him to appear before the public inquiry.
“I think the point we’re getting to, too, is that it’s clear that both Mr. Ayres and Mr. Perrottet will have to appear before the committee sooner rather than later,” he said.
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