A senior New South Wales public servant tasked with recruiting for a New York trade role awarded to John Barilaro will appear before a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday to answer further questions about the process after the release of additional documents.
At her second appearance before the inquiry, Brown is expected to be asked if she felt pressured to deliver certain outcomes in the recruitment processes that documents suggest recommended two different women before landing on Barilaro for the $500,000-a-year gig.
The deputy leader of the Liberal party, Stuart Ayres, is facing increased scrutiny over his role in the process. Ayres has maintained that Brown had the ultimate responsibility for the decision.
Brown is also expected to be asked why a selection panel report dated 25 March was altered following the second recruitment process that put Barilaro in second place for the job.
The alteration was revealed in documents released on Monday that included an updated report, dated 15 June, which listed Barilaroin first place. He had signed his contract a week earlier on 8 June.
Ayres has repeatedly stated that Brown was the ultimate decision-maker in the recruitment process.
Brown declined to respond to the new documents on Monday other than to confirm her appearance at the inquiry.
Ayres said he did not regret texting the job advertisement to Barilaro in December despite him still being a member of parliament at the time.
The NSW opposition has sought access to those messages and other key materials through parliamentary orders for documents.
By Tuesday, almost 2,500 documents had been produced by the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade as part of the inquiry. Of those, more than 1,880 have been classified as privileged and cannot be publicly released or used during proceedings.
Labor MP John Graham, who sits on the inquiry, said on Monday that Labor would reserve the right to recall Brown for a third day once all requested documents have been released. That could be as early as Monday, he said.
The premier, Dominic Perrottet, has repeatedly said he will not respond to the allegations raised in the inquiry until the findings of a separate, independent inquiry by the former public service commissioner Graeme Head has been handed down.
