James O’Doherty: Minister Jo Haylen is under fire as denials don’t add up

The government’s shambolic handling of hiring the state’s transport boss is a prime example of the longstanding political truism that the cover-up is often worse than the crime, writes James O’Doherty.

As the saying goes, the cover-up is often worse than the crime.

The government’s shambolic handling of Josh Murray’s appointment as the state’s transport boss is a prime example of the longstanding political truism.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s refusal to front a parliamentary inquiry to explain — under oath — why she hand-picked a former Labor staffer to run Transport for NSW was just the latest misstep in a jobs-for-mates scandal which has been bungled almost from day one.

Now, through the government’s own actions, Premier Chris Minns has been drawn directly into the firing line.

Murray, an upper house inquiry heard on Thursday, has known the Premier for decades.

Both men worked as staffers in the former Labor government.

They have known each other in Labor circles ever since.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen at her press conference on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Murray is married to Davina Langton, the daughter of Brian Langton. Langton senior just happens to be a former Labor minister, from the seat of Kogarah, the electorate Minns now holds.

As part of $1450 that Murray and his wife donated to Labor in the year before the election, they spent hundreds of dollars to attend a fundraiser for the Premier’s own election campaign in Kogarah.

While Murray said he has not been to Minns’ house for a barbecue, the pair have attended weddings together and, in April, a funeral.

Murray was also in the crowd at the Novotel at Brighton Beach when Minns took to the stage to claim victory in March.

Less than 10 days later, Minister Haylen sought Murray’s counsel as a former political staffer and an infrastructure executive in a meeting (which she declared) at parliament house.

Given all of that, surely Minns would now acknowledge his government gave a job to a mate. “Absolutely not,” the Premier told me on Thursday.

Those denials are getting increasingly questionable.

NSW Transport Secretary Josh Murray appears as a witness at the Public Accountability and Works Committee Hearing at Parliament House. Picture: John Appleyard

As Haylen’s chief of staff Scott Gartrell conceded on Thursday, he suggested a panel of public servants should interview Murray for the top transport job because he disagreed with the headhunting firm tasked with filling the job.

That recruiter, NGS Global, was paid $125,000 for a market testing process to find the best possible candidate.

They thought Murray lacked experience and then warned his appointment would be a “significant risk”.

“I thought they’d got it wrong, frankly, in the assessment that they’ve made of him,” Gartrell said.

For the record, Gartrell and Murray have also known each other for more than a decade. Gartrell has had Murray’s phone number for about 15 years.

According to documents released to parliament, and an inquiry on Thursday, Murray got the rails run for the $588,250-per-year job ever since Gartrell texted him the job advertisement.

That included Murray contacting Gartrell directly during the recruitment process, after NGS Global mistakenly thought he had applied for a different job.

Premier Chris Minns denies any wrongdoing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

As I have noted before, if Haylen wanted Murray for her departmental secretary she could have asked for him to be appointed as soon as she got in the car on the way back from being sworn in.

For better or worse, ministers can hire whoever they want to run their departments. And governments providing jobs for their mates is a tale as old as time.

As I have revealed, former Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s department even gave a $200,000-per-year job to the National Party’s federal secretary.

The problem for Haylen comes from putting in place a quasi merit-based process to deflect criticism over giving a job to a Labor comrade.

Minns has all but said it was a waste of time and money and that Haylen should have just picked Murray from the start.

But, even now, the minister is standing by her decision to spend $125,000 on some glorified job advertisements.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I stand by the fact that we put advertisements for this very important job in the newspaper, on LinkedIn (and) on government websites,” she said on Thursday, during an early morning press conference at Central Station.

If Haylen is so sure that everything was above board, then after her grilling with journalists she should have hopped straight on the T4 Eastern Suburbs line to Martin Place and made the short walk to Parliament House to make her case.

Her argument that, as a minister in the lower house she is “not answerable” to parliament’s upper house, is arrogant and hypocritical.

Bear in mind this was the same party who would complain for days on end when former Coalition ministers refused to front similar inquiries.

Some people may buy Haylen’s argument that it would have been “absurd” for her to choose her transport boss based on $750 in tickets to a fundraiser.

But in attempting to rewrite history and deny the obvious — that Murray was the man Haylen wanted for the job from day one — Haylen is treating voters like mugs.