The documents reveal NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s office was also given 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.
The documents were submitted on Tuesday after a three-week delay and intervention by Perrottet, who told his department he expected pending documents related to Barilaro’s controversial appointment to be submitted by the end of this week.
Dozens of documents handed to the upper house on Tuesday, including applicant CVs and selection board reports, have been marked privileged. This means they can be seen by members of the upper house but are not available to the public or the media.
The delay in returning the documents has also led to an unexpected early withdrawal from the upper house. Parliament was not due to reconvene until next month, but the chamber will now meet at 10am on Friday if the full tranche of documents is not released.
Speaking in Singapore on Monday at the opening of a NSW trade office in the city-state, Ayres said he was interviewed last week by former NSW Public Commissioner Graeme Head, who is carrying out the independent research into the recruitment process.
He also defended the appointment of Barilaro. “I think if a person is the deputy premier of NSW and a trade minister, they’re pretty well qualified for the role,” Ayres said.
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“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that one of these positions has been given to a person … who is a former member of Parliament.
“I have seen nothing published or presented to any committee to suggest that John Barilaro did anything other than apply for the job as a private citizen and be selected on merit.”
Barilaro has since stepped down as trade commissioner, acknowledging that his appointment was a “distraction” and unsustainable.
Ayres will travel to Mumbai on Tuesday to join Perrottet on his business trip.
what they said
- Stuart Ayres: It is important to acknowledge that no suitable candidate was identified at the end of the first round of recruitment… Investment NSW advises me, very clearly, that no formal offer has been made, nor has any been issued contract, to any candidate as part of the first round process. It is clear that what has happened here is that the CEO of Investment NSW has made a determination, after the recruitment process has been completed, that there is no suitable candidate. They then moved on to a new recruitment process. – Hansard of the Legislative Assembly, 22 June 2022
- Dominic Perrottet: I will say it in relation to this issue. I met with the Minister of Business, Investments and Trade this morning and was informed as follows; here are the facts. The first recruitment process did not identify a suitable candidate. As such, a second recruitment process was carried out. This process was independent and led by a third party recruiter. The secretary of the Department of Business, Investments and Commerce [DEIT] she was responsible for making the final decisions regarding both recruitment processes, and she will be able to explain the basis of her decision-making. The hiring of Mr. Barilaro has already been formalized. – Hansard of the Legislative Assembly, 22 June 2022
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