Revealed: Liberal leader was chauffeured to airport on taxpayer’s dime for a Bali holiday

Liberal leader Mark Speakman is the latest MP to be exposed using a taxpayer-funded ministerial driver to get to a family holiday.

NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman was chauffeured by a taxpayer-funded driver to the airport for a family holiday in Bali in January last year, while he was on leave.

Under the rules only the leader of the opposition is allowed to have access to a driver, with none of the opposition front bench afforded that right.

When the opposition leader goes on leave, the acting opposition leader is then allowed use of the driver but not at the same time.

Yet on the day he was driven to the airport, both Mr Speakman and Liberal upper house MP Natalie Ward, who had already commenced the acting position, logged separate trips.

The revelation is the latest to emerge from the Jo “Van” Haylen saga, after almost 4500 pages of driver logs were released under freedom of information laws last week.

NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman is the latest in a long line of MPs who used taxpayer-funded drivers to get to private holidays. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Mr Speakman left his Woolooware home in his Cronulla electorate on January 4 last year so he could catch a 4:35pm flight to Bali for a family holiday. Yet on the same day, the logs show the acting opposition leader commissioned two trips around Sydney, with the driver clocking more than 100km for each one.

Due to it being a weekday, all drivers earn the normal rate of $65 per hour.

Mr Speakman was on leave for ten days, arriving back in Sydney on January 14. He paid for his own Uber for the trip home from the airport.

Though Ms Ward was already in the acting position, Mr Speakman said he was working on the way to the airport.

“January 4 2024 was a business day for me and I worked while travelling to the airport to catch a late afternoon flight,” he said.

“My use was within the spirit and letter of the rules, at no extra cost to the taxpayer. After my return flight I caught an Uber back home at my expense.”

Shadow Transport Minister Natalie Ward was acting Opposition leader while Mr Speakman was on leave. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

The leader of the opposition had previously told media he sometimes would ask his driver to pick up his dry cleaning, when the vehicle, which is a Toyota Camry was sitting idle.

Mr Speakman’s use of the taxpayer-funded driver comes after the release of the driver logs showed multiple Ministers had routinely used the vehicles to be chauffeured to private holidays.

This included Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig, who forced a ministerial driver on a 71km round trip on Christmas Day so he could be driven to the airport, which is less than 5km from his house.

Veterans Minister David Harris had also used the drivers on occasion to ferry his wife from Sydney to their Central Coast home.

All of the trips were within the rules at the time, which allowed ministers, the leader of the opposition and the presiding officers to use chauffeurs for business and private trips.

Premier Chris Minns was forced to change those rules after the Telegraph revealed Transport Minister Jo Haylen had used a ministerial driver to go to a Hunter Valley winery over the Australia Day weekend.

Originally published as Revealed: Liberal leader was chauffeured to airport on taxpayer’s dime for a Bali holiday