Dominic Perrottet is currently touring Tokyo in Japan as part of the opening of Investment NSW’s North Asia hub, which will include another trade office.
However, today he was forced to respond to allegations made during the parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the $500,000-a-year New York trade posting offered to former deputy premier John Barilaro.
Barilaro has rejected these allegations.
Perrottet was asked whether the controversy around the New York trade role might overshadow his first international trip.
“Clearly there has been concern in relation to the process and my job is to create confidence in the process,” Perrottet said.
“I think concerns have come to light on how the Jenny West matter was handled.”I’ve got to keep doing the job, obviously there are challenges domestically but I’ve got to keep driving our state forward.”
The parliamentary inquiry into Barilaro’s appointment continued today and heard the testimony of another staffer.
This former staffer claimed Barilaro sent a text message while trade minister and demanded the process for appointing global trade positions to be changed “as soon as possible”.
Barilaro resigned from politics a month later.
He has since withdrawn from the US trade commissioner role, claiming the media attention has made it “not tenable”.
“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,” Barilaro said.
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