The position of Commissioner for International Engagement was first raised in the ACT public service on July 4, with no consideration of candidates and no analysis of the need for such a job, documents released under Freedom of Information laws suggest.
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The job was announced on July 11, and the controversial appointment of Liberal parliamentarian Brendan Smyth was announced on Friday July 15.
The email chains released this week show the bureaucrats making hurried suggestions back and forth about what to call the job.
It is also clear the pay rate was set without any reference to the independent Remuneration Tribunal, which advises the government on salary rates for such positions.
Deputy director-general in the Chief Minister's Directorate Jeff House first raised the position late in the afternoon on July 4, when he outlined the plan to executive director of Innovate Canberra Ian Cox. He called the job "commissioner general" and stressed it was mainly a diplomatic appointment, appointed by cabinet. He asked Mr Cox to begin work on it.
Three minutes later, he emailed again to say work should start "ASAP".
Half an hour later, Mr House emailed again, saying "agent-general would be a good fit" for the name.
By 7pm Mr Cox had prepared a draft press release, which he described as a "hurry job drafting effort". It included this sentence: "The ACT government will conduct an extensive search process for the commissioner later this year."
The next morning, Mr House removed that sentence and sent the draft to Chief Minister Andrew Barr's chief of staff, Jamie Driscoll, for his approval.
Mr Driscoll told him "agent-general" wouldn't work for the name, since it was "a UK title".
"I supposed we could use the good old coordinator general as a last resort," Mr House replied.
Mr Driscoll suggested not naming the job at all yet, but just describing the person as a senior executive.
Mr House said the name of the position should have "the gravitas it needs to underscore" its importance.
"The title has to sound more like a quasi-diplomatic post rather than just an ordinary public service position," he told Mr Driscoll at 10.26am on Tuesday, July 5. "I don't think we'll attract the calibre of candidate we need if it sounds like a standard public service job (and those jobs don't get announced by the CM anyway)."
The reference to attracting candidates indicates that on July 5 there were no plans to appoint Mr Smyth, or if there were, public servants were unaware of them.
Mr House continued to push "agent-general" as the name, but suggested "envoy" as an alternative.
After that comes silence until the following Monday, July 11, when Mr Barr's media adviser, Mark Paviour, circulates another draft media release for final approval. This time the job is described as "director for international relations". Mr Driscoll replies, "let's say commissioner for international engagement", a name that clearly stuck, and the release went out within a couple of hours.
The next day and in the days that followed, a flurry of emails were sent to the government solicitor and others for legal advice on the job. None have been released. On July 14 a brief on the position went to Mr Barr, but it has been withheld as cabinet-in-confidence.
On July 15, at 7.27am, Mr Barr's communications chief Ed O'Daly sent Mr House a release announcing Mr Smyth had been appointed to the job, an appointment that was made public at 10am that morning.
Asked about the appointment that morning, Mr Smyth said he had been approached earlier that week and had submitted an application, discovering he had been successful on Thursday evening. There is no record of an approach to Mr Smyth nor an application. But asked on Friday this week, Mr Smyth said the approach had come in a call from Mr House (of which there is apparently no file note). Mr Smyth said he had never claimed to have submitted an application.
The rest of July 15 saw a long series of emails between Mr House and the government solicitor's office.
The announcement was made without cabinet approval, despite it being a cabinet appointment, and the following Monday, July 18, the bureaucrats were urgently preparing the cabinet paperwork for Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
On Tuesday night, July 19, Mr House finally turned his attention to writing a document that would outline Mr Smyth's key duties, asking others for input.
On July 4, Mr House said his thinking was to peg the salary to a ministerial salary and it would be subject to the Remuneration Tribunal. Tribunal chairwoman Anne Cahill-Lambert confirmed she had received no referral as of September.
