Jo Haylen’s future as Labor’s Transport Minister hanging in the balance

The political future of Jo Haylen is under threat after the NSW Transport Minister’s most senior team member quit in controversial circumstances.

The political career of Transport Minister Jo Haylen is hanging in the balance after the shock resignation of her chief-of-staff and the launch of an investigation into whether a junior public servant he hired was conducting Labor Party work.

Veteran Labor staffer Scott Gartrell sensationally resigned on Friday afternoon as hundreds of pages of documents relating to department liaison officer Keiran Ash were released to state parliament.

Ms Haylen’s spokesman played down Mr Gartrell’s resignation, declaring it had been unprompted by the minister.

“He (Mr Gartrell) was always going to go by the end of the year, after setting up the office,” he said.

However, the resignation came after the government revealed it was launching its own investigation into the staffer Mr Gartrell had hired, including allegations he had been undertaking party work.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen had not asked for Mr Gartrell’s resignation, a staffer confirmed on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The Sunday Telegraph revealed in September how Mr Ash was the subject of an anonymous “dirt file” whereby it was alleged he had been given a job because of his extensive Labor Party affiliations.

The dirt file was circulated as an Upper House inquiry probed the ­appointment of former Labor staffer Josh Murray to the ­almost $600,000-a-year transport secretary role.

Under Department of Premier and Cabinet guidelines, department liaison officers are employees assigned to minister’s offices from agencies within the minister’s portfolios.

They are not members of the minister’s staff, and guidelines state they “must be politically neutral and impartial” and “must avoid party political activities”.

Mr Ash had previously worked for several Labor MPs, and also stood as the ALP candidate for the seat of Pittwater in 2015.

Scott Gartrell seconded a department liaison officer who has since been accused of engaging in political work while working in Ms Haylen’s office. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Simon Bullard.

When The Sunday Telegraph asked Ms Haylen’s office at the time whether Mr Ash had worked in any capacity for the ALP since taking on the DLO job, the spokesman said “no”.

“The secondment was approved by the Department in accordance with the established processes that govern the secondment of DLOs,” he said in September.

The state opposition has seized on the scandal to demand Ms Haylen resign, questioning how she could not be aware of the activities of her staff.

State opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said Ms Haylen was responsible for the conduct of her staff.

“A Minister is responsible for the conduct of staff in their office,” Ms Ward said.

“Scott Gartrell has made the right decision to resign from his position as Chief of Staff to the Transport Minister. The Transport Minister should do the same. The buck stops with the Minister.”

The internal investigation will examine whether a series of emails written by Mr Ash may have been in breach of his employment conditions.

The emails are among the documents released to parliament on Friday following an SO52 by Ms Ward, not all of which have been made public.

There is no suggestion in the publicly available documents that Mr Gartrell was aware of Mr Ash’s activities.

The emails that have been released show Mr Ash, who was involved in helping Labor try to win the seat of Balmain, showed him agreeing to organise a BBQ for Ms Haylen’s supporters and suggesting how the minister might answer questions in about her portfolio in parliament.

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