Transport for NSW ‘fat cat’ role costing taxpayers $240,000 per year

Mystery surrounds the purpose of a Transport for NSW role costing taxpayers more than $200,000 per year.

Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes has called on the department’s secretary to “sort” out the role. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

A director of “Breathtaking Simplicity” at Transport for NSW is costing taxpayers more than $200,000 per year.

Mystery surrounds the purpose of the role, which Labor has slammed as the most recent example of Department of Transport bureaucrats wasting public money.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that after learning of the role, Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes demanded action from Transport for NSW secretary Rob Sharp.

He told the secretary to “sort” out the role, and its confusing job title, “expeditiously”.

The Band 1 director position – for which the average yearly salary is more than $244,000 – was created in May, with two people reporting directly to the role.

Transport for NSW Secretary Rob Sharp. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Asked to provide a job description for the role, a Transport for NSW spokesman said: “This role is tasked with accelerating new technology, faster project delivery and simplifying governance so we can deliver a better, more efficient service.”

Mr Stokes told the Telegraph all Transport for NSW staff have a “serious job” to do, adding: “They should have a serious title to go with it.”

It comes after the Telegraph revealed heads could roll over an end-of-year “planning and development” event at which thousands of dollars of public money was spent on a bar tab.

Hundreds of staff dined on confit salmon and beef goulash at the all-day planning meeting. An urgent inquiry was launched after the Telegraph revealed the lavish spending, with Transport for NSW’s leadership team then reminded the agency will not pay for any end-of-year celebrations.

Labor’s Transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said Transport for NSW needed to focus on its core business of getting people to work on time.

“This is a government and a Transport Minister who are no longer focused on the people of NSW,” she said.

“The only thing they should be focusing on is having a working transport system.”