Inquiry chairCate Faehrmann asks John Barilaro:“Can you see why the public is suspicious about this whole process?”
Barilaro: I absolutely understand. That is why I’m here today,voluntarily,to explain the process. It was a public service,independent process. Just because you’re a former member of parliament doesn’t exclude you.
Faehrmann:Did you have any concerns when you heard the Public Service Commissioner,for example,on Friday afternoon,saying that she wouldn’t have endorsed the selection panel report if she knew then what she knows now?
Barilaro:The reality is that I didn’t know any of that either. So just like the Public Service Commissioner,I didn’t know that there were those intersections,if that’s the word that was being used. I went into an independent process that a panel assessed me and offered me a job.
Other evidence has come about. But that’s not on me. I had no role in seeking any favour or special treatment in the process. It’s just impossible,it’s an independent public service process.
Faehrmann:I put to you then the person that was doing your bidding was minister[Stuart] Ayres.
Barilaro:I don’t believe he was doing my bidding. Listening to the evidence of last week,he was sought advice on a number of occasions and he gave that advice.
Now,it looks muddy and messy. Absolutely,I can understand the perception and understand what’s occurred in the public. I’m not silly,I understand that. But that wasn’t the case ... I genuinely believed the process was fair ... and that would give me cover.
The political attack was always going to come,I’m not silly about that,but I was confident that the process was so clean,so independent,that my selection[could easily stand].[I’m] disappointed that it hasn’t been as clean as it should have been,and I’m the victim,I’m not the perpetrator.
What did I do wrong? I got offered a job,I accepted the job ... I can’t tell you what occurred behind closed doors because I wasn’t involved in it.