A senior advisor to former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says he was tasked to work towards changing a controversial US trade role into a ministerial appointment. 

The former Nationals leader was previously appointed as a NSW US trade commissioner position in New York, but stood down from the position last month after a massive backlash. The $500,000-a-year position is now the subject of an NSW parliamentary inquiry. 

Joseph Brayford, a senior policy adviser in Mr Barilaro’s office from 2019 to 2021, gave evidence in private to the upper house inquiry on Tuesday. 

According to a transcript from the inquiry that was published, Mr Brayford revealed that he received a text from Mr Barilaro late last year about the plum trade role.

He said the former deputy premier asked him to contact Investment NSW head Amy Brown and “request a cabinet submission converting the commissioner roles to ministerial appointments”. 

“Nothing really surprised me with John,” Mr Brayford told the committee. 

He added that the former Nationals leader then told him he also wanted the London and Tokyo trade roles to be changed to ministerial appointments. 

Mr Brayford described the former deputy premier as an “interesting character” and said he had never “worked with someone so keen and so ambitious”. 

The inquiry was previously told the New York role was verbally offered to senior Investment NSW official Jenny West, however the offer was rescinded after a cabinet decision to make it and the other trade postings ministerial appointments. 

The NSW parliamentary inquiry heard evidence from Mr Barilaro’s former chief-of-staff Mark Connell that his former boss eyed the lucrative New York trade job more than three years ago and planned to take up the role when he left politics. 

Mr Connell said Mr Barilaro told him in April 2019 that the government planned to bring back a number of overseas trade postings, and he was “off to New York”. 

However, Mr Barilaro disputed his former chief-of-staff’s account, describing the conversation as “fictitious, false”. He also criticised the inquiry for failing to immediately call him to comment on the allegations, saying the drip-feed of information to the public went against procedural fairness. 

A separate Department of Premier and Cabinet review, initiated by the NSW Premier last month, is also looking at the propriety of Mr Barilaro’s appointment. 

With AAP

Eliza Sayon

Website | + posts

Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

• Developing an effective data ecosystem
• The journey of building an ecosystem through data
• NZ government strengthens data privacy laws against third parties
• eSafety Commissioner issues legal notice against Twitter