A senior government lawyer has told an inquiry into how former deputy premier John Barilaro’s scored a plum New York trade job has shut down claims the role was ripped away from top public servant Jenny West.
The NSW parliamentary inquiry returned on Tuesday, hearing from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment general counsel Chris Carr, who held the same role with Investment NSW from June last year to April 2022.
Former public servant Jenny West previously told the inquiry she had been offered the job of senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas worth $500,000 a year.
Ms West said she lost her senior job at Investment NSW and was made redundant after the New York posting was withdrawn. The overseas role eventually went to Mr Barilaro, who withdrew after public outcry in June.
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment general counsel Chris Carr (above) claimed Jenny West was never offered the $500,000 trading post job in New York during an parliamentary inquest hearing on Tuesday
Appearing at the inquiry last week, Ms West said Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown told her she no longer had the job a month after she was offered the role because it was to be ‘a present for someone’.
Before the job was rescinded, Ms West told the inquiry she was sent a text message by Ms Brown on August 12, 2021, with a signed note from then-premier Gladys Berejiklian confirming she had the role.
‘Congratulations. This is one to frame,’ Ms Brown wrote, adding emojis of the Statue of Liberty and a bottle of champagne popping.
On Tuesday, Mr Carr said he had ‘limited’ involvement in the appointment of Mr Barilaro to the plum job and disputed evidence given by other witnesses.
Ms West’s testimony that she was ‘fully offered the job’ was ‘not correct’, he said.

Ms West (above) claims she was verbally offered the dream job last year before Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown told her a month after she was offered the role that her offer was retracted, saying it ‘will be a present for someone’
He added that Ms West said she was having tax troubles in the US that would prevent her accepting the New York posting for some time.
‘Ms West said: “I need to find an expert here in US taxes that can advise me as you will see there are implications in many areas, and importantly, I can’t move forward until this is sorted”,’ Mr Carr said.
‘I felt there were material contract terms that (had) not yet been finalised, particularly as to tax.
‘My understanding is that Ms West was well advanced in the process, but not at the end of it.’

John Barilaro (above), who created the New York position in 2020, was offered the job after Ms West was dismissed
Mr Carr was asked in September to prepare advice on why the appointment of senior trade and investment commissioners was a public service appointment, and whether it could be a ministerial one.
He told the hearing the request came from Ms Brown or her chief of staff not from Mr Barilaro, with whom he had little interaction.
‘I did receive some questions subsequent to that from a junior officer in Mr Barilaro’s office. They were related to the constitution and they were related to the Commonwealth foreign relations act,’ Mr Carr said.
Ms Brown previously told the inquiry the request came from the former deputy premier’s office.

Mr Carr (above) denied he commented on the job when he allegedly told Ms West he was ‘horrified’ by her treatment in the recruitment process, claiming he was only comforting a colleague
Ms West told the hearing she had spoken to Mr Carr after learning she would not be sent to New York for the job and took a note of their conversation at the time.
During a phone call last September, she said Mr Carr had told her he was ‘horrified’ by her situation.
‘That was her interpretation. That was not a word that I would have used,’ he told the inquiry.
‘I felt the need to console her… I felt it was open to me as a colleague, at a human level, to give her some degree of comfort.
‘I wasn’t giving advice. Any of my responses would have been taken with a grain of salt because it was an environment (where she was disappointed).
‘I don’t think I was passing an opinion on the job description for these roles.’
Ms West submitted a note she made during their September 17 phone call, after hearing the verbal offer had been withdrawn.
‘His comments were: you were offered the job, had it signed off and just waiting on the contract and then this happens … if it was me, I would be bitterly disappointed,’ she wrote.

Ms West submitted a note (above) she took during a phone conversation with Mr Carr as evidence to the inquiry in which she wrote he said he was ‘horrified’ by her treatment
Documents show another highly qualified woman, Hong Kong-based executive Kimberley Cole, was shortlisted for the position after it was re-advertised.
Other documents have been kept from public view after government lawyers claimed they were privileged.
Mr Barilaro announced last month he would withdraw from the role saying it was ‘not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained’.
He has maintained he followed the proper processes.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (above) launched an internal inquiry into Mr Barilaro’s appointment which is due to be finished in coming weeks
‘It is clear that my taking up this role is now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained,’ Mr Barilaro said in a statement on June 30.
‘I believe my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do, and thus my decision.
‘I stress, that I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review.’
Premier Dominic Perrottet has launched an internal inquiry into the appointment, led by former public service commissioner Graeme Head, which he expects to be finalised in the coming weeks.
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