The federal government usually sends political allies from outside the diplomatic service to posts such as ambassador to Washington and high commissioner in London. It makes sense for those positions to be filled by people with political experience,a direct line to the prime minister,and willingness to push boundaries in ways risk-averse bureaucrats will not.
For example,a deal last year for the United Kingdom to give Australia four million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine would have probably never happened without the political and personal relationship between our then,and Boris Johnson’s health secretary Sajid Javid. was also an exemplary representative for our country in the United States.
Yet appointing former to the cushy position of NSW trade and investment commissioner in New York is not such a case.
It is hard to see what qualifies Barilaro over other potential candidates for this cushy job,which comes with a $500,000 salary plus expenses and relocation allowance.
TheHerald has seen no evidence that the six trade commissioner jobs created by Barilaro and the NSW government in 2019 represent value for money for taxpayers or guarantee a reasonable return on investment. To put the $500,000 salary in context,Premier Dominic Perrottet is paid a package worth $407,980,which includes an expense allowance.
While the five other NSW trade commissioners around the world have long experience in similar roles and/or detailed local knowledge of the target market,Barilaro’s CV in public and private life looks comparatively thin.
It is true that he was minister for industry and trade for two and a half years,but he showed little interest in the trade portfolio.
He was best known for trying to channel government cash towards projects in Nationals seats and brawling openly with. An incendiary populist,he seems personally ill-suited to the discreet and meticulous work of trade diplomacy.
Perhaps because the idea of sending Barilaro to Wall Street is so questionable,Perrottet has not exactly put his heart into defending it. Instead,he claimed this week that of Invest NSW,the relevant government agency,without his knowledge.
This only raises more questions. It has emerged that Invest NSW ran a selection panel early last year,but the process was cancelled. The position was then re-advertised after Barilaro quit parliament at the end of last year.
Initially,the government said the first selection process was cancelled because it failed to unearth any suitable candidates,but it then emerged that the panel had chosen a candidate who was even offered the job,but the decision was reversed.
There are questions about the second selection process too,because the public servant who supposedly decided Barilaro should have the job had been working for him until a few months before,when he was trade minister.
Finally,it is not clear why Barilaro’s appointment was never put to cabinet given its obvious political sensitivity,before it was announced last Friday.
Perrottet has acknowledged the public concern about these questions and asked Michael Coutts-Trotter, which will be made public.
Coutts-Trotter is a respected public servant who has served governments of both political stripes with distinction. Still,Perrottet would have done better to recruit an outsider to look into the matter. The inquiry should look at the political motives of all those involved.
Whatever the inquiry discovers,the whole incident is a bad look for a government trying to convince voters it has learnt the lessons of the scandals over pork-barrelling and the.
Both Perrottet and Barilaro should accept that a mistake has been made. At this stage,Barilaro should not take up the posting in New York.
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