Analysis: Barilaro saga lands Perrottet in purgatory | DeborahSnow AlexSmithSMH
Not much political nous was required to anticipate that John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum trade post in New York – a post Barilaro helped create when he was trade minister – would unleash a firestorm the minute it became public in mid-June.
Insiders are asking why Premier Dominic Perrottet did not save the government sooner from the Barilaro own goal.Why was it not glaringly apparent to Ayres, who knew as far back as December of Barilaro’s interest in the role and texted him a link to the press notice advertising the job? Department secretary Amy Brown said she was nervous about the appointment of John Barilaro to the trade role given his history with the government.It included Barilaro once publicly telling then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to resign, and labelling then federal Nationals leader Michael McCormack a failed leader. Liberal colleagues saw him as an unpredictable powder keg.
The Ayres/Barilaro saga has overshadowed a carefully crafted budget which was meant to put the near 12-year-old Coalition government on a war footing for the state election in seven months’ time. Little love is lost between the two front-runners, moderates leader and treasurer Matt Kean, and pugnacious centre-right faction boss, transport minister David Elliott.Credit:Just weeks ago Elliott was publicly accusing Kean of “treachery” for secretly egging on a journalist to pressure Scott Morrison during the federal election campaign over the Katherine Deves affair. This week Elliott continued a thinly veiled attack on Kean on radio 2GB over delayed compensation for taxi plate-holders.
On Tuesday morning, Ayers stood on the freshly laid turf at the rebuilt Allianz stadium, a pet project of his for years, and basked in its completion. Senior Liberals fear the premier does not have politically astute minds in his office helping guide him. Black, his right-hand man, is a former lawyer in the NSW Liberals’ head office who is viewed as a “lovely bloke”, according to ministers, but lacking in political nous.“His office will let him down,” according to one senior minister.
Brown has spoken of having “multiple intersection points” with Ayers throughout the process of appointing Barilaro and many of Ayers’ colleagues now believe he misled parliament – something the former trade minister vehemently denies. Barilaro quit the New York role at the end of June, never having set foot there, saying his position had become untenable.
Perrottet has now announced a third inquiry into whether Ayres has indeed breached the ministerial code of conduct. This appears to relate to that portion of the code that forbids a minister from acting in a way that would require public servants to breach the law or their own ethical obligations. The original decision had been for them to be public service hires. Then, in September last year, Barilaro got cabinet to agree to make the posts political appointments. That was just days before his resignation as deputy premier and trade minister.
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