I should have told John Barilaro not to apply for New York role, says Stuart Ayres

Under-fire NSW trade minister, Stuart Ayres, says he should have told his former colleague John Barilaro not to apply for a US trade role that has engulfed the government in crisis.

Amid increasing pressure over how Barilaro landed the $500,000-a-year trade role that he created when he was a minister, Ayres on Tuesday defended his role in the the process.

The deputy NSW Liberal leader said his only regret was not telling Barilaro not to apply before he had done so because it would be “too politically sensitive”, but insisted there needed to be a fair process once the application was lodged.

“When John Barilaro asked me about this role, I should have told him that even though he’s a private citizen, and he can apply for the role and he should be treated equally and respectfully, it was probably not in his best interest or the state’s best interest to apply,” Ayres said.

“Once he did that, though, I think it was important that the public service treated him fairly.”

Several Coalition ministers have declined to publicly support Ayres, who on Tuesday admitted one colleague had asked him to quit, although the premier had not.

His comments came after documents released by an upper house inquiry on Monday showed Barilaro had been ranked second by the selection panel, before that decision was later overturned in his favour. Ayres said on Monday that was done at the request of Investment NSW chief executive, Amy Brown.

It was already the second round of recruitment for the job, after the Guardian revealed the posting was first offered to former senior public servant and businesswoman Jenny West in August last year, when Barilaro was still in government.

Ayres defended his decision to text the job listing to Barilaro in December despite Barilaro still being a member of parliament at the time, because it was “already in the public domain”.

“I was merely informing him that the ad had been published in the paper and whatever actions he wanted to take after that point were entirely up to him,” Ayres said

Opposition treasury spokesperson Daniel Mookhey has called on the government to release the text messages and other documents that he said were being withheld from the inquiry.

“Weeks before John Barilaro quit the parliament and created a million-dollar byelection, he was talking with Stuart Ayres about his next job,” Mookhey said.

“The text messages and emails between Stuart Ayres and John Barilaro should have been produced to the parliament.”

Ayres has previously said Barilaro texted him in December to ask about the job. “I made it very clear to him that we were continuing with the existing process [and] I informed him that they would be publicly advertised and he, like any other private citizen, will be able to apply,” he said in June.

By Tuesday, almost 2,500 documents had been produced by the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade as part of the inquiry, but of those more than 1,880 have been classified as privileged and cannot be publicly released or used during proceedings.

Meanwhile, Perrottet has repeatedly stated he will not act on the matter until a separate review he commissioned by former public service commissioner Graeme Head has been handed down.

Ayres said he was confident the review would make findings in his favour but admitted he would not be able to continue in his role if it did not.

“If the Head review shows that I’ve not done the right thing then I don’t think my position would be tenable,” he told 2GB on Tuesday morning.

“But I don’t believe that’s the case.”

Despite increasing pressure on him to stand aside from within the party, Ayres maintained he would retain the confidence of colleagues once the review had been completed.

“I don’t believe that I brought this saga, to use that word, on the government,” he said.

“If we put in place an independent review, and that review finds that a person acted in accordance with their responsibilities, you wouldn’t continue to pursue that.”

The upper house inquiry into the appointment will resume on Wednesday when Investment NSW head Amy Brown returns to give evidence a second time.

Due to the delayed release of some documents, the opposition has flagged it may recall her to give evidence again next Monday – which may cut into the time set aside for Barilaro himself.

Ayres has repeatedly stated that Brown was the ultimate decision-maker for the appointment, and said yesterday it was her decision to change the selection panel’s decision to rank Barilaro second.

Barilaro walked away from the role less than two weeks after his appointment was announced in June, saying it had become untenable. He has said that he “always maintained that I followed the process”.