The ICAC found the public service job offer Greiner had helped engineer for his disgruntled former minister fell within the definition of corrupt conduct – because Metherell’s departure from parliament would have reduced the government’s reliance on independents. Greiner was later redeemed by the courts.
Thirty years on,however,jittery Liberal ministers keep muttering the words “Metherell affair” after the appointment of former deputy premierJohn Barilaro to a $500,000-a-year job as a trade commissioner in New York.
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Barilaro’s new job was announced late on Friday afternoon amid the flurry of budget coverage. Fridays are cynically described as when governments take out the trash,but if this government hoped the announcement would slip under the radar,they were wrong.
Premier Dominic Perrottet’s Liberal ministers were immediately incensed. His backbenchers even more so.When Barilaro announced his resignation from parliament in the days after Gladys Berejiklian’s spectacular demise,many within the Coalition were not-so-secretly relieved.
Barilaro,a gifted retail politician with an undeniable passion for regional NSW,had been a thorn in the side of many within government,not least Berejiklian. The pair’s working relationship had all but broken down by the time they left politics,with her bemoaning to colleagues that he bullied her.
Berejiklian and Barilaro had never recovered from a bruising internal battle over koala planning policy,during which the then deputy premier threatened to take his National partyroom to the crossbench. Berejiklian returned fired with an ultimatum:she would march to Government House and swear in an all-Liberal cabinet.