Public servant earning $600k feared he couldn’t afford to live in London

A NSW public servant earning $600,000 a year has said he would struggle to afford to live in London unless taxpayers helped pay his rent.

NSW Agent General to the UK Stephen Cartwright gave evidence to an inquiry on Tuesday morning where he defended invoking Dominic Perrottet and other top politicians in salary negotiations with his bosses in the public service.

The inquiry also heard ex-trade minister Stuart Ayres was briefed on Cartwright’s wish to have rent money and school fees for his children added to his remuneration package and that Ayres raised no objections.

“It didn’t strike me as unusual because my view had always been that the salary packaging arrangements were set up wrongly in the first place,” Cartwright told the inquiry.

He said he began to look into the cost of living in London after he arrived and that he was “horrified” by what he discovered.

“I got over here and found out the outrageous rents that you have to pay here, the school fees, that are double anything that you would ever pay in Australia,” Cartwright said.

He said he sent a text to Ayres about the matter because he needed a “circuit breaker” in his negotiations over the package.

“I’m sitting here with time running out in terms of my temporary accommodation, my wife and children still in Sydney, me wondering whether I can actually afford to secure a family home and pay school fees [and it was] becoming pretty obvious we weren’t gonna be able to do that,” Cartwright said.

He said he didn’t realise it would be controversial to seek the minister’s help because he hadn’t worked in the public sector before.

“Should I have gone to the minister? You know, in hindsight, if I’d known it was going to cause such a storm, then probably I shouldn’t have,” he said.

He also denied he “name-dropped” Perrottet, who was treasurer when Cartwright began applying for the job and who is now premier.

Rather, Cartwright said, he was making a “suggestion” that someone above his public service boss’ paygrade could resolve the salary question.

“I think I was entitled to ask for it to be reviewed by somebody who could perhaps intervene to help me resolve the problem,” he said.

Perrottet’s chief of staff Bran Black will give evidence to the inquiry later in the afternoon.

The inquiry was launched earlier this year after questions emerged over the hiring of ex-deputy premier John Barilaro as the state’s trade envoy to the US.