Connolly is refusing to agree with Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson SC that a process where she passed on interview questions in advance to her friend Angela Jones-Blayney “fundamentally undermined” the recruitment process.
The commission has seen text messages where Connolly sent questions that would be asked in a job interview for the position of executive director, city engagement and experience to her friend Roxanne Thornton, who passed it on to Jones-Blayney, who eventually got the job.
Connolly says she sent it to her, via Thornton, because she thought every candidate was being sent the questions ahead of time by Local Government NSW, the industry body administering the interview process.
In fact, records obtained by the commission indicate candidates were given the questions 10 minutes before their interview began.
“If in a process where the questions were not disclosed in advance to the interviewees, and a process in which the scenario question was disclosed [to others] only 10 minutes in advance, [and] a candidate had access to the questions and the detail of the scenario in advance, and that was provided to them by a panel member, or came from a panel member, do you agree that that fundamentally undermined the recruitment process that was being conducted?” Davidson asks.
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