A NSW parliamentary committee has accused Premier Dominic Perrottet of impeding its probe into lucrative overseas trade roles.
“The premier’s refusal to assist this inquiry in its investigations has impeded the committee’s ability to determine his role in the selection of Stephen Cartwright as the NSW Agent General UK, as well as determining his remuneration,” the committee said in its final report released on Monday.
The inquiry was launched to investigate former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to a taxpayer-funded trade position overseas and was later expanded to examine similar lucrative roles, including that of Mr Cartwright.
The committee report found Mr Barilaro interfered in that hiring process by meeting with Mr Cartwright, and failed to engage with a candidate who had previously been preferred for the job.
Mr Barilaro also talked with Mr Cartwright about his salary expectations, boosting his expectations.
The committee report said this was highly inappropriate and showed poor judgment.
Mr Cartwright, who eventually landed an annual pay packet of $600,000, along with a $105,000 rent allowance, applied pressure to public servants during negotiations, the committee found.
The premier dismissed the report’s findings and denied Mr Barilaro had acted inappropriately.
“This is typical of Labor, back in the upper house playing more games,” he told reporters on Monday.
The committee, chaired by Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, said the inquiry revealed “how ministers inappropriately influenced” appointments and “confirmed the government’s lack of integrity and transparency in appointing who they want to high paying public service positions”.
It recommended the government investigate Mr Cartwright over his salary, saying the deal had been a bad outcome for the state.
“Mr Cartwright repeatedly and inappropriately applied pressure to senior public servants to improve his personal remuneration … resulting in a poor financial outcome for the state of NSW,” Ms Faehrmann wrote.
“The committee is recommending the secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade to investigate whether Mr Cartwright has at all times abided by the code-of-conduct applicable to the senior executive service.”
The committee’s three coalition members dismissed the findings in a dissenting statement.
“This report is a politically-motivated hit job from a desperate Labor-Greens coalition weeks out from an election,” they said.
A similar pattern of inappropriate interferences by ministers was revealed in the final report to its interim report, released earlier this month, which found former NSW trade minister Stuart Ayres was not at arm’s length from the recruitment process of Mr Barilaro.
“This whole sorry saga has shaken the public’s confidence in the integrity of public service recruitment,” Ms Faerhmann wrote in the interim report.
The hiring process was flawed and not carried out at a distance from executives, the committee found after months of investigation and a dozen public hearings.
Mr Ayres was not at arm’s length during the recruitment and misled the public when appearing at the inquiry, she said.
