Transport Minister Jo Haylen quits over chauffeur scandal

NSW Premier Chris Minns will be forced into his first major cabinet reshuffle after Transport Minister Jo Haylen resigned over a taxpayer-funded driver scandal which has triggered a new ban on ministerial vehicles being used exclusively for private purposes.

Haylen, a close ally and factional heavyweight who helped secure Minns the Labor leadership in 2021, fell on her sword following fresh revelations she used a ministerial driver for a Hunter Valley wine tour with her husband.

The new trip emerged after Haylen apologised on Sunday for sending a government driver on a 13-hour, 446-kilometre round-trip from Sydney to chauffeur her and a group of friends – including Housing Minister Rose Jackson – to a long lunch at a Hunter Valley winery on the Australia Day weekend.

In a brief press conference where she read from a prepared statement and refused to take questions, Haylen said the premier accepted her resignation on Tuesday morning. She confirmed allegations of the earlier winery trip, but insisted the circumstances differed from the long lunch on Australia Day as she was working that day.

“As I said on Sunday, I have made mistakes – people aren’t perfect. I did not break the rules, but I acknowledge that that’s not the only test here. I’ve let the public down and I’m very sorry for that,” she said.

“I was working on that day, but I acknowledge that the use of my personal driver was an error of judgment by me. My mistakes are now causing my government damage.”

Haylen said she would remain the member for Summer Hill, in Sydney’s inner-west.

Minns said while Haylen had “clearly made an error of judgment”, she paid a “high price” for what he called the “grey area where private and public uses blur”.

He said he had immediately moved to change the rules to ensure the use of ministerial vehicles aligned with public duties.

Haylen met with the premier at government offices at 52 Martin Place at 10.30am on Tuesday. The 40-minute meeting was swiftly organised after Minns was blindsided during an interview on 2GB radio with host Ben Fordham, who revealed the claims of a second winery tour.

Her resignation will force Minns into his first major reshuffle since forming government in March 2023. Haylen held the pivotal transport portfolio, which has been plagued by months-long industrial disputes with the rail unions. The impasse has caused considerable commuter disruption and is yet to be resolved.

Jo Haylen after announcing she’d step down as transport minister.Credit: Nick Moir

Roads Minister John Graham will act as interim minister until a replacement is formally sworn in, most likely after budget estimates conclude in mid-March. Labor sources touted Health Minister Ryan Park and Planning Minister Paul Scully as the obvious candidates to replace Haylen, but both presented issues given the prominent, public-facing roles of their respective portfolios.

Besides sacking former skills minister Tim Crakanthorp over his failure to disclose his family’s property empire in 2023, Minns has stuck with the ministry he announced after taking government.

On Sunday, Haylen offered a mea culpa over the initial Hunter Valley long lunch but said she could not recall using her ministerial driver in the same way on the other occasions. Asked if using the taxpayer-funded vehicles for private purposes was something she typically did, Haylen replied: “No.”

The earlier scandal prompted a dressing-down from Minns, who labelled it “unacceptable” and a “massive error of judgment”, but stood by the minister.

After telling media she did not recall any other instances in which she had taken long journeys using her ministerial car for private purposes, a string of other incidents emerged including trips from her Caves Beach holiday home to Sydney, allowing her to drop her children to Saturday sport.

A member of the hard Left, Haylen supported Minns, from Labor’s Right, in an earlier unsuccessful bid for the Labor leadership against Jodi McKay in 2019 and helped him to secure the post in 2021.

Widely seen as one of Labor’s most competent performers before coming to government, Haylen has been engulfed in a series of scandals since becoming transport minister.

In 2023, she faced a storm of controversy for hand-picking former Labor staffer Josh Murray to become the department secretary. Haylen also courted controversy when she parachuted a Labor-aligned ally into an apolitical department liaison role in her office.

The minister denied wrongdoing, but her then-chief of staff left his role during the drama.

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