The senior NSW bureaucrat who appointed former deputy premier John Barilaro to a plum New York job has walked away with an estimated $448,692 payout after being fired.
Amy Brown appointed Mr Barilaro to the $500,000-a-year trade post, even though there were many other well-credentialed candidates in the running.
Doing so led to her dismissal after NSW’s most senior public servant, Michael Coutts-Trotter, suggested she would be sacked for unsatisfactory performance.
Seven months out from the state election, the opposition Labor Party said more heads should roll in the Barilaro job scandal.
Losing a job for unsatisfactory performance would normally lead to a payout of just 12 weeks’ salary – $141,700 in Ms Brown’s case.
But a spokesman for the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which Mr Couts-Trotter heads, said Ms Brown’s payout figure was correct.
Amy Brown (pictured) has walked away with a $400,000 payout after being fired from her senior bureaucrat role
‘Ms Brown’s employment… was terminated under section 41(1) of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013,’ the spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.
‘She is entitled to a payment equivalent to 38 weeks’ pay.’
The massive payout will help to make up for the loss of Ms Brown’s $614,000-a-year position as secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Investment, and Trade.
An independent review into the appointment of Mr Barilaro to the taxpayer-funded US trade job found Ms Brown was indirectly influenced by then-trade minister Stuart Ayres’s preference for who should get the role.
Mr Ayres resigned as minister last month after a draft excerpt from the review raised questions about whether he breached the ministerial code of conduct with his involvement in the appointment process.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the appointment process was ‘flawed from the outset’ and ordered the independent legal review to establish if Mr Ayres had breached the ministerial code.
The review, carried out by former ICAC inspector Bruce McClintock SC and released last week, found Mr Ayres had not breached the code, but he remains on the backbench.
Ms Brown stood aside from her role as head of Investment NSW in August, saying at the time she wanted to focus on her position as departmental secretary.
NSW bureaucrat Amy Brown said in a social media post that she is ‘exploring new opportunities’ but neglected to say this was due to her having been fired
Mr Barilaro relinquished the trade job in June, just weeks after his appointment was announced, saying the role was untenable and had become a distraction.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said Ms Brown’s sacking was ‘the appropriate course of action, considering the gravity of the revelations from repeated inquiries’.
But he said Ms Brown should not be the only head to roll over the scandal, which has weighed heavily on the Liberal-National government for months.
‘It is seemingly obvious that in the coming weeks, the premier of NSW will reappoint Stuart Ayres to the NSW cabinet… that would be a terrible decision in terms of public administration in the state,’ Mr Minns said.
Ms Brown wrote on LinkedIn on Sunday night that she was looking for ‘new opportunities’, but neglected to mention she had been sacked.
Instead she said she was proud of her time in government.
‘After close to a decade working for the NSW Government, my tenure has come to an end,’ she said.
‘I am exploring new opportunities in the private sector and hope to make an announcement about that soon.’
Former NSW deputy Premier John Barilaro (pictured) gives evidence during the inquiry into his appointment as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas at NSW Parliament House in Sydney, Monday, August 8, 2022
NSW’s most senior public servant, Michael Coutts-Trotter (pictured), suggested Amy Brown would be sacked for unsatisfactory performance. She walked away with a $448,000 payout
Mr Ayres resigned as minister last month after a draft excerpt from the review raised questions about whether he breached the ministerial code of conduct with his involvement in the appointment process.
The review found Mr Barilaro’s appointment was not kept at arm’s length from government.
The appointment plunged the Perrottet Government into months of turmoil as the merits of the process were scrutinised.
A Resolve Political Monitor survey last month revealed how damaging the affair was for the NSW government.
Even 49 per cent of Coalition voters thought giving the job to Mr Barilaro meant he was ‘unfairly awarded’.
Elizabeth Mildwater, chief executive of the Greater Cities Commission and former deputy secretary of Transport for NSW, will step in for Ms Brown from Tuesday.
Mr Perrottet and Mr Couts-Trotter have been contacted for comment.