John Barilaro has told colleagues he was given a reference from a top public servant backing his appointment to a $500,000-a-year job as a trade commissioner.
A former political staffer to Gladys Berejiklian has pleaded guilty to multiple historic child sex offences,including aggravated indecent assault.
The public servant who appointed John Barilaro to his plum trade job cancelled the recruitment search for the role the day before he quit politics.
The NSW premier’s admission will further inflame the controversy over the former deputy premier’s appointment to a $500,000-a-year trade role in New York.
The proposed casino regulator will be led by a chief commissioner with four additional commissioners,including one with anti-money laundering expertise.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has revealed the first of the policies he will take to next year’s state election,saying Labor would build 100 government preschools located alongside primary schools in its first four years in office.
The incident does not help a government trying to convince voters it has learnt its lessons from the pork-barrelling scandals.
Former deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment as a New York-based trade commissioner came after a panel chose four other candidates,of which one was reportedly offered the job.
A snap cabinet meeting late on Wednesday evening agreed to the new measures,designed to cripple the finances of crime networks.
In the halls of parliament,jittery Liberal ministers keep muttering the words “Metherell affair” as outrage over the appointment of John Barilaro to a plum job grows.
Opposition leader Chris Minns is misrepresenting the government’s policy and ignoring economic advice.