The bureaucrat at the centre of the appointment of John Barilaro to a NSW trade commission post in New York, secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade Amy Brown, has been sacked from the NSW public service.
Brown announced her departure overnight, saying “my tenure has come to an end”. Grilled repeatedly by a NSW upper house inquiry into Barilaro’s appointment, and the prior withdrawal of an offer of the post to successful candidate Jenny West, Brown revealed that then trade minister Stuart Ayres had repeatedly been engaged in the process involving Barilaro, despite his claims that it was conducted “at arm’s length” from him. Ayres resigned from the ministry in early August but was later cleared of breaching the ministerial code of conduct by an independent report.
Brown’s own conduct in the appointment process drew criticism when it emerged that she had withheld information from other members of the selection panel that appointed Barilaro, suggesting breaches of the NSW Code of Ethics and Conduct. The process and outcome were later criticised by other panel members.
This morning the head of the NSW public service, Michael Coutts-Trotter, released a statement that “in accordance with section 41 of the Government Sector Employment Act and in consultation with Amy Brown, I’ve decided that she will not continue to hold office as secretary of DEIT”.
Brown’s handling of the earlier stage of the process, involving Jenny West, remains something of a mystery, with West and Brown offering different recollections of the circumstances in which West was offered the job and ministers were advised she was the successful applicant, before Brown told West she would not be appointed, that she had lost her existing job, and — in an allegation rejected by Brown — that it was because the New York appointment was to be a “present” for someone.
Can you, or anyone, explain why on the same facts Mr Ayres is exonerated but Ms Brown is defenestrated? Me neither.
“Goats. Get ya sacrificial goats…..”
“I’ll have a Brown one please….”
Just make sure it’s a nanny!
Paper trail, maybe? There’s always that gap between what happened and what one can prove happened, so it’s entirely plausible that certain aspects of the decision-making wouldn’t have left as much evidence.
Culpability increases in inverse proportion to status and only reaches so far up. Brown is not important enough to enjoy impunity. Ayres, like all ministers, is beyond all that. He answers to the Ministerial Code, which amounts to a prolix paraphrase of Alastair Crowley: Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law.
Part of the duty of being a public servant is also to be a scape goat for the political class. How Ayres was spared is despicable but he probably won’t have a job after March, hopefully.
PIty for Amy who should have been sacked for doing her job, which was to dig her heels in and stick to the merits based employment systems of the public service and make that public. That way, she would not only have done the right thing, she would also have had an unfair dismissal action. It would have been Coutts Trotter who had nowhere to go. Now, she has nowhere to go.
From what I have read, Amy’s entire business strategy seems to be ‘hand it to God and pray like there’s no tomorrow!’
Pity Amy? Nah, it’s much simpler than that. She’s femaie.
“Throw that woman under the nearest bus!!”
Meanwhile, Ayres will be back as deputy before the election, promising more handouts to hold on to Penrith. As for Amy – who?
Amy will be provided with a sweetener, all part of the deal.
Dont know what her salary is, but I’d say a year in advance would be a handy little sweetener
Payout was 38 weeks @ $614k p.a.
So payout of a touch under $450k.
Once again the libs sacrifice a woman on tge alter of mates protection. Ayres will get a restoritive makeover and be back in no time. Brown? Forget her, she’s gone for good.
What’s disturbing is what this episode reveals about the motivation and intellect and morality of politics at the highest level. I think we know that this trade commissioner plan was nothing but a boondoggle, unsupported by any respectable analysis of what real contribution it might make. Amy Brown may well have been procedurally complicit, but she would have been responding to her political masters, who have their own career success as their permanent, if not explicit top agenda item.
The ducking and weaving from Brown and Ayers was hard to watch. At least something has been done about it. However I still want to know why Jenny West was not only sacked from the NYC job but also her substantive position. I also want to know why Brown is entitled to compensation. We have more to learn yet.