Former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the real reason he decided to withdraw from the lucrative New York trade commissioner position last month was because he discovered Scott Morrison had already been operating in the role since 2020.
“I flew to New York and was pretty excited to get started on my first day. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into my office and found Scott sitting there,” Barilaro explained.
“I thought I was pretty much unbeatable when it came to dodgily manipulating government processes for self advancement. But of course I’d totally forgotten about Scott”.
Barilaro said Morrison was good enough to offer to split the role. “He said, ‘this role involves doing absolutely nothing, so how about we split it between us and halve the workload”.
