‘A present for someone’: Jenny West gives explosive testimony at inquiry into John Barilaro’s NY trade job

The woman first offered the New York trade commissioner job that eventually went to the former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro has told a parliamentary inquiry that when her offer was rescinded, she was told the job would instead be “a present for someone”.

On Monday the former senior public servant and businesswoman Jenny West told an upper house inquiry into Barilaro’s appointment she received a brief signed by the former premier Gladys Berejiklian noting her appointment on 12 August last year.

She received the brief in a text message from the chief executive of Investment NSW, Amy Brown, who told her: “This is one to frame.” The message contained emojis of a champagne bottle and the Statue of Liberty.

But despite receiving both the brief and a verbal offer from Brown, the offer was later rescinded, West said.

West told the inquiry that on 16 September Brown told her “a submission was going to cabinet” that would make the six trade roles “political appointments and not public sector appointments”.

West presented her notes from the conversation to the inquiry that stated Brown told her that it was the “DP” – Barilaro – who had taken the submission to cabinet.

At the same time, West said, she was told that her current position could also be made redundant.

By late September West had received confirmation the New York position would be made as a political appointment.

“I was shocked,” she said. “In the space of four weeks I went from having been appointed to the role of [trade commissioner] to the Americas to potentially not having a job.”

West told the inquiry she had a meeting with Brown on 14 October in which she was told she would not be getting the job and cabinet had decided the position would become a “political appointment”.

“Ms Brown said the position, and this is a quote, ‘will be a present for someone’,” West said.

“She added, and I again quote, ‘you are an extraordinary performer and I am upset this has happened’.

“At the time I was just surprised at the turn of phrase, so I noted it down.”

“I thought the process was unusual because it was a proper public sector process – [and] I went for a job, I applied for it, I got offered it – and then to have that role withdrawn [and] be told it was going to be a political appointment. I couldn’t get my head around that.”

West said Brown told her of the decision to withdraw the offer after meeting with Stuart Ayres, who had replaced Barilaro as the minister for trade following the announcement of his resignation from parliament in early October.

Brown previously told the inquiry that while West had been given a “verbal offer” there had been no “formal” job offer.

“[West] was verbally offered the role and then I was given a direction by government to cease the recruitment due to a change in government policy to convert the roles into statutory officers appointed by a minister,” Brown told the inquiry last month.

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But West told the inquiry that after negotiating her contract, being verbally offered the role and then being sent the signed brief from Berejiklian, she believed it had been a formal offer.

“I was so excited about the appointment,” she said.

“I immediately shared the news with my family and friends and they were so happy for me. I began taking steps to relocate and had engaged a relocation company; I looked at rental accommodation in New York and looked at colleges for my family. I wanted to have my affairs in order.”

Barilaro last month withdrew from the role, saying the high degree of media attention was a distraction that had made it untenable for him to continue.

“I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review,” he said at the time.