NSW public servants waited on ‘ministerial feedback’ on New York trade role later given to John Barilaro

Officials inside Investment New South Wales were waiting for "ministerial feedback" on the lucrative New York trade job - which eventually went to former deputy premier John Barilaro - in late April, documents show.

On the same day the deputy Liberal party leader, Stuart Ayres, held a media conference in Mumbai denying he influenced the decision to hire Barilaro, a trove of files released under a parliamentary order raised new questions about the government's insistence that the recruitment process had been handled at arm's length from ministers.

They included emails which show Ayres had asked Investment NSW's chief executive, Amy Brown, to add a name to the shortlist of candidates for the role, as well as others that suggest his involvement included directing public servants on which media outlets to advertise the job in.

Other documents also called into question the previous timeline given by both Ayres and Brown for when the decision to hire Barilaro was made.

Brown has previously told an upper house inquiry probing the appointment that she made the decision to hire Barilaro on 1 April. She said she told Ayres of her decision "sometime within April".

"He said, 'you're the decision-maker, so it's your decision'," Brown told the inquiry.

But a document titled "Investment NSW emerging and ongoing issues for minister Ayres and the Premier" stated the agency was still waiting for "ministerial feedback" on the plum trade job on 28 April.

While the document stated the "shortlisting" of candidates in cities including New York was "well underway", it raises further questions about the minister's role in the recruitment process.

Similarly, internal agency emails suggest Ayres was involved in plans to re-advertise the role after the decision to withdraw an offer to former senior public servant Jenny West.

On 14 December an email from the senior Investment NSW officer Kylie Bell states Ayres had given instructions for which publications he wanted the job to be advertised in.

"Minister Ayres has confirmed he would like the add [sic] in the SMH, AFR and the Australian," she wrote.

On the same day, another Investment NSW staffer wrote that the department also checked with Ayres's office about a plan to drop a story about the trade jobs to the Australian Financial Review.

"Confirmed with the MO (minister's office) that AFR was the right outlet for the story," the staffer wrote.

The emails and briefing document are potentially significant, given Ayres has said the recruitment process was conducted at arm's length from the government.

On Thursday the Guardian revealed that in February, Ayres met with Brown to talk about a shortlist of candidates for the role, and that the minister had asked for a name to be added.

On 8 February Brown wrote to another senior public servant in Investment NSW, Kylie Bell, to advise that she had "run through" the list of candidates with Ayres.

"Min Ayres and I have run through the 'long' shortlist and our recommended 'short' shortlist for NYC," she wrote.

"He'd like to add [REDACTED] to the short shortlist please."

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, Investment NSW said the candidate mentioned in the email "was not John Barilaro", but refused to provide any further comment.

The department also insisted a briefing provided to Brown in June that stated Ayres had met with Barilaro and "supported" him as the candidate for the job was a "clerical error".

Brown has been called to appear before the upper house inquiry probing the job for a second time next month.

During his press conference in Mumbai, Ayres said he had "no power to influence" the decision to hire Barilaro.

"It is an independent process but the point I'm making is that members of the public service, particularly secretaries, will always update ministers through the course of the process," he reportedly said.

"I have not under any circumstances influenced the decisions of Amy Brown [CEO of Investment NSW] in who she is selecting as senior executives of the public service."

The Guardian first revealed last month that West had previously been offered the New York trade job in August, before having the offer withdrawn after what Brown called a "government decision" to make the roles ministerial appointments.

That decision was eventually reversed by Ayres when he replaced Barilaro as trade minister, after the latter's resignation.

Ayres had already been under pressure following the revelation he had signed a brief in August last year that stated West was the "successful candidate for the job". He had previously told parliament there had been "no suitable candidate" found in the first round of recruitment.

That led to accusations from Labor that he misled parliament, something he denied again on Thursday: "I want to be very, very clear about this. The information that I provided the parliament is absolutely consistent with the information that has been provided by the CEO of Investment NSW", he said.

The trade saga has engulfed the NSW government for a month, and on Thursday the Labor opposition announced the inquiry probing the job would hold fresh hearings next month.

That will include Barilaro himself, who has been invited to appear on 8 August. Barilaro has already withdrawn from the position, citing the amount of media attention his appointment had garnered.

However, he has said he "always maintained that I followed the process".

On Thursday Barilaro told the Guardian he had been "available to attend the inquiry for weeks, with the committee refusing to call me".

"I'm yet to receive a formal invitation at this stage, and I am disappointed that I have had to read about it in the media.

"Labor chooses to play this out in the media, rather than following procedural fairness."

In response to detailed questions, a spokesperson from Investment NSW said the agency was "assisting the Department of Premier and Cabinet and NSW legislative council inquiry in reviews of the Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas recruitment process, and as such is not appropriate to make any further comment".

Ayres's office did not respond to a request for comment.