Michmutters

“Those candidates could be anyone and everyone and there are a mixed bag of candidates right across the board and we’ll have more to say about that, but they’re confidential in those conversations, they’re confidential in the nature of those conversations and we’ll have more to say.”

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Barilaro’s response further fueled Labor’s suspicions. The party did not relish a byelection in McKay’s marginal seat of Strathfield and was also convinced the Coalition had its sights on it. Senior MPs and staffers started doing some digging into the trade jobs, which newly elected Labor leader Chris Minns had concerns about. Minns could not see the benefit of NSW having such roles.

One month, after Berejiklian’s shock resignation, the new premier Dominic Perrottet was also pressed on a possible McKay appointment: “Are you considering appointing Jodi McKay as a trade envoy?” No, it was his response from him before adding: “There are always discussions, and I for one, believe that former members of parliament make good ambassadors and trade commissioners.

“I think it is a role that politicians, as unpopular as this may sound, that’s a job that, I think, is well suited to former politicians and people who have provided years of service in public life should certainly be in the mix. But in terms of those appointments, they haven’t come before the cabinet.”

After a late Friday afternoon announcement in June this year, which revealed Barilaro had snared the plum New York trade commissioner’s job, Minns was in his electorate of Kogarah with Mookhey for a budget-related press conference.

Minns relayed to Mookhey that voters had approached him unprompted at his street stall to raise the Barilaro appointment, which had been reported in the media that day. The pair quickly decided that it was an issue that had to be pursued with rigour.

Within 24 hours, Mookhey and Labor’s leader in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, had referred the matter to the public accountability standing committee, which has a non-government majority, for an inquiry. Two more Labor frontbenchers were recruited to interrogate the trade appointment, John Graham and Courtney Houssos. Greens MP Cate Faehrmann chairs the inquiry.

“We took another look at those documents,” Mookhey says of the papers already in his possession. “We saw references to a mystery ‘preferred’ candidate at the bottom of some email chains from August last year. Yet by December, mention of this mystery candidate had all but disappeared.” These were the documents that revealed senior bureaucrat Jenny West had already been offered the job that Barilaro ultimately secured. Others also revealed that Barilaro, in fact, asked that McKay (and former Liberal minister Pru ​​Goward) be interviewed for a trade role.

Mookhey, who has also prosecuted other problematic issues for the government (and Perrottet) such as the mass underpayment of injured workers exposed in the Icare scandal, admits the opposition stumbled across the trade appointment saga.

The first witness the inquiry called was the bureaucrat responsible for appointing Barilaro, Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown. A parade of witnesses followed, including Jenny West – who was offered the New York role only to have that offer rescinded – and the public service commissioner Kathrina Lo, who was an independent member on Barilaro’s selection panel. Barilaro was also called.

The evidence has been hugely damning for the government, although Perrottet has dismissed the inquiry as little more than a political hit job.

One senior minister said the public service commissioner was assumed to be a “friendly witness” for the government. However, the experienced public servant delivered a searing assessment of the process that saw Barilaro appointed, with saying she would never have signed off on a final selection report if she knew then what she knows now.

Brown also conceded that despite his denials, Ayres was not “at arms length” from the trial, despite his insistence that he had no role. West, in her evidence, claimed she was told that the New York job would be a “present for someone.”

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A NSW Labor senior source says the opposition has forensically reviewed all the documents, pursued questions in the inquiry and created a slow-burn scandal for the government. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the inquiry was a “dress rehearsal” for government.

“We have the best team on the park for this and Daniel Mookhey is shaping as the Macquarie Street version of John Faulkner as interrogator-in-chief,” the source says.

However, Coalition committee member Nationals MP Wes Fang, is scathing of the inquiry. He says it was designed to destroy Barilaro and has not uncovered any wrongdoing.

“It is a political hit job in circumstances where the opposition and crossbench have the numbers on the committee using what should be extraordinary powers of parliament to political assassinate John Barilaro,” Fang says. “This is not an impartial committee, there has been no procedural fairness with this inquiry.”

Barilaro was due to appear at the inquiry for the second time on Friday, but canceled due to poor mental health. His friend, Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor, said Barilaro had not been treated fairly by the inquiry, which took three weeks to call him to give evidence.

“This constant, constant attention on him. Him waiting three weeks until he was able to give his side of a story at an inquiry. I say to you and I say to anyone out there, how would that make you feel and how do you think you would manage with that?” Taylor said on Friday.

Taylor praised Barilaro for always being “very open” about his own struggles. “So I respectfully say to everyone, he has been very honest and very open, and he has put his case forward. He deserves correct process. He deserves independence [and] respectful behaviour,” she said.

Barilaro will, however, still be expected to appear before the inquiry once he is well enough. Meanwhile, Labor has uncovered more problems for the government in its trove of documents. Next in its sights is another potentially problematic trade role, the agent-general in London, which will also be interrogated by the inquiry. The saga has a long way to run.

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“We now have a system where universalism is at risk, and patients paying more in out-of-pocket costs for a basic GP visit than the rebate. This is just going to lead to more people not getting the care they need.”

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners warned this week that inadequate Medicare rebates were leading an increasing number of GPs who had previously bulk billed all consultations, to start charging patients.

Melbourne GP Anita Munoz, who chairs the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Victorian faculty, said the rebate given to doctors had not increased in real terms for many years, and that many GPs could not afford to continue bulk billing without charging a gap fee .

“The cost of delivering care has so far outstripped the contribution from Medicare that not charging a gap is no longer feasible,” she said.

Medicare patient rebates for GP consultations were frozen from 2013 to 2019, and received a small boost earlier this year, of 1.6 per cent. Munoz said no other industry could continue under such circumstances. “And our industry is now showing that it will collapse under that weight unless something changes.”

GPs want Canberra to raise the Medicare rebate by 10 per cent for doctor visits between 20 and 40 minutes, and to also introduce a new rebate for one-hour consultations for patients requiring complex care. The call is included in an advocacy plan put out by the RACGP this week.

Education service HealthEd recently released a poll of almost 500 GPs that found 22 per cent had recently changed their billing model, meaning patients faced higher out-of-pocket costs to see a GP. A third of those that changed their billing model moved from bulk billing to mixed billing (a combination of bulk billing and private billing), while 67 per cent changed from mixed billing to completely private billing.

Kathy Barr has two daughters, aged 24 and 19, and for the past five years the family has visited a local clinic. “They bulk billed, and we initially went to them when money was tight because we also found a really good doctor in the practice,” says Barr, 60, who lives in Stanmore, in Sydney’s inner west.

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In April, the practice stopped bulk billing. Barr caught pneumonia in 2019, and then in late 2021 she had treatment for a benign brain tumor, which still requires monitoring, and has required constant access to specialists – most of whom require her to see a GP for a referral.

“Because I have to get multiple prescriptions, it’s often a double appointment, which is $160,” she said. About $80 of that is refunded via Medicare. Barr said she could cover it. “I’ve got a professional career, but that’s still a lot of money. So I hesitate to see a doctor when I should, due to the cost.”

And Ms Barr said the charges had all but stopped her daughters going unless it was absolutely vital.

“Once bulk billing finished, it made it almost impossible. When you have a complex medical condition, on top of what happened during the pandemic, and then not having access to bulk billing – it means really serious impacts on the individual.”

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