The parliamentary committee examining the lucrative overseas roles was forced to postpone hearings on Monday and Tuesday as it continues to fight claims of legal privilege over documents it says are critical to its resumption.
John Barilaro (right) giving evidence during the inquiry in August.Kate Geraghty
The upper house inquiry was launched in June following former deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to the New York trade role,from which he has withdrawn.
A separate review by former public service commissioner Graeme Head questioned the integrity of the process behind Barilaro’s recruitment and raised concerns about possible failures of ethical conduct.
Thousands of sensitive government documents have already been produced and examined during the long-running inquiry,which has expanded to inspect the recruitment of UK Agent-General Stephen Cartwright.
The committee had planned to hear evidence from Cartwright and another British trade commissioner,Paul Webster,via video-call from London on Monday and Tuesday;however,the inquiry will instead resume on October 17.
Barilaro is not expected to appear next month after he declined another invitation due to mental health concerns.
Attention turned to Cartwright after it emerged that he was a late entrant to the role,for which he had and expected an $800,000 salary. He ultimately negotiated a $600,000 package – higher than any other trade commissioner.
Opposition and crossbench committee members are now fighting to make public a new cache of almost 200 documents related to Cartwright’s appointment and his contract,accusing the government of trying to thwart the inquiry’s progress.
“Once again the government has claimed privilege over numerous documents to delay the important work of the public accountability committee,” said chair and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann.
Opposition committee members (from right) John Graham,Daniel Mookhey,Penny Sharpe and Courtney Houssos during the inquiry in August.Kate Geraghty
“However,they’re just delaying the inevitable. Like last time,I’m confident much of what the government is claiming as privileged will eventually be released. It is getting increasingly frustrating,though,to continue to have to push back hearings because of these games.”
Leader of the opposition in the upper house Penny Sharpe said,while upper house MPs can access the documents,the privilege claims mean they cannot be examined in public hearings.
“Until we can talk about them publicly we cannot do our job,” she said.
The prolonged trade appointment saga overshadowed the government’s agenda over the course of 10 weeks and has since claimed the scalps of senior bureaucrat Amy Brown and Ayres,who was forced to resign as trade minister over his role in the recruitment process.
An independent review has since cleared him of any wrongdoing,and Premier Dominic Perrottet has
The committee plans to call Ayres to give evidence next month,but he is not compelled to attend. Ayres was contacted by theHerald for comment.
Coalition committee member Nationals MP Wes Fang,who has been scathing of the inquiry,rejected opposition and crossbench claims that claims of privilege were erroneous.
He said there had been a long-standing practice of governments of all persuasions around the handling of sensitive documents,“including under Labor. So,their criticism of the process is unfounded”.
Fang said the inquiry had been drawn out for too long and was now being abused by the opposition to further a “political hit-job”.
“The horse is dead and no amount of flogging is going to revive this inquiry. The opposition is clearly looking to justify the continued prosecution of John Barilaro,an innocent man,” he said.
“This is simply the opposition desperately trying to link a scandal to the trade commissioner roles.”
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