Trade Minister Stuart Ayres signed off on a ministerial briefing identifying former bureaucrat Jenny West as a successful candidate for a coveted New York trading post, but later told parliament she was not ‘had found no suitable candidate.
New documents released to the upper house on Tuesday reveal Ayres, who was then investment minister, signed the letter saying “after a full recruitment process, the selected candidate is Ms Jenny West” on 17 August of last year.
Stuart Ayres heads to India on Tuesday for more business meetings after opening a new Investment NSW office in Singapore. Credit: Jessica Hromas
The documents have been released as part of the parliamentary inquiry into how then former deputy prime minister John Barilaro was appointed to the lucrative $500,000-a-year role.
Despite the August 2021 document showing Ayres signed off on West’s appointment, the minister has repeatedly told parliament and the public that the first recruitment process for the New York-based trade post failed to find a candidate appropriate.
“It is important to recognize that at the end of the first round of recruitment there was no suitable candidate identified,” Ayres told the legislative assembly on June 22 this year.
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The documents also reveal NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s office received the same information. An email trail shows his office received a final copy of the letter on August 13 last year and returned it as “addressed” to the Investment Executive’s office NSW.
Perrottet has similarly maintained in his public comments that the first hiring process for the post of America’s trade commissioner did not identify a suitable candidate.
Then-premier Gladys Berejiklian and former trade minister John Barilaro also received the letter, which noted West was the recommended candidate from a selection panel that included Investment NSW boss Amy Brown , and head of the planning department, Jim Betts.