Police are investigating a confrontation between former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro and a television cameraman outside a Sydney bar.

Video circulating online shows the former Nationals leader briefly clashing with the cameraman on a Manly street outside a Manly bar at around 7.30pm on Saturday.

The footage features the pair struggling as they grab and push one another, while the man tries to film Mr Barilaro, who then walks away.

Mr Barilaro has confirmed the run-in, saying he was “confronted in the dark outside of a bar” and felt harassed during a night out with friends.

“To come out and have a camera shoved in your face. I’m a private citizen,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.

“All I did was push a camera out of my way. I did not manhandle an individual.”

Premier Dominic Perrottet condemned the scuffle as a form of physical harassment and said that Mr Barilaro’s privacy should be respected since he had left politics.

“There’s no place for altercations in society like that … and, as Mr Barilaro pointed out, … people get pushed and pushed and pushed,” he told reporters in Seoul after touring Hyundai’s showroom while inspecting hydrogen-vehicle technology as part of a 10-day Asia trade trip.

“There’s no place for harassment, particularly for people who are private citizens. It’s very different if you’re in public life but if you’re a private citizen, his privacy should be respected.”

Mr Barilaro is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry into how he was appointed to a plum government trade job in New York.

The former state Nationals leader was handed the $500,000-a-year trade commissioner post last month, but quit amid a public backlash.

Mr Barilaro said he did nothing wrong by applying for the job and wants to be called to give evidence to the inquiry, but Labor is holding off until the government supplies thousands of documents it has requested.

An opposition push to recall parliament over the matter on Friday looks likely to succeed after the Greens supported the move.

Labor is trying to force the government to hand over all the documents relating to how the appointment was made.

Greens MP and chair of the Public Accountability Committee Cate Faehrmann is backing the move, saying “it’s highly suspicious” documents are being withheld.

Labor has written to Legislative Council president Matthew Mason-Cox, asking that he recall the chamber at 10am on Friday.

It maintains MPs should consider “the government’s failure to comply with an order of the house to produce certain documents regarding the appointment” of Mr Barilaro to the position of Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas.

The committee has already triggered Standing Order 52 to compel the government to hand over relevant documents.

The premier on Monday confirmed a sizeable tranche of documents would be produced to the committee by the end of the day.

“The advice I’ve received today is that the majority of those documents will be produced by the end of the day and any outstanding documents will be produced by the end of the week,” a visibly shaken Mr Perrottet added.

Inquiry committee member and Labor treasury spokesman David Mookhey said earlier the government had failed to produce even one of the key documents which would show why Mr Barilaro got the job.

“We’re having to take the rare step of recalling parliament to help bring an end to the government’s obstruction,” Mr Mookhey said on Monday.

“Our preference is for the government to obey the law and hand over the documents. Without them, the inquiry is stuck having to put together a puzzle without all the pieces.”