Victorian Labor MP Steve Herbert caught out ordering driver to chauffeur dogs 120km

UPDATE: FURIOUS MPs have lashed out in Question Time demanding Corrections Minister Steve Herbert be sacked following his taxpayer-funded chauffeuring of his dogs.

Labor MP Steve Herbert has been caught out ­ordering his driver to chauffeur his dogs 120km between his Parkdale home and country house.

LIBERAL MPs have lashed out demanding Labor Minister Steve Herbert be sacked following his taxpayer-funded chauffeuring of his dogs.

Premier Daniel Andrews told Parliament during Question Time there was no ministerial business The Victorian Corrections Minister could have been attending to by chauffeuring dogs.

Scorned members of the Opposition shouted in response: “then sack him”.

Mr Andrews defended Mr Herbert, saying because no formal complaint had been made, it was “the end of the matter’ and the minister would stay.

However, he conceded the department would check if the driver was paid overtime to ferry the dogs around when pressed during the debate.

At one point, the Opposition queried why Mr Herbert was exempt from standards applied to Adem Somyurek, who was forced to quit after staff bullying allegations.

Liberal Party MPs put pressure on their Labor colleagues, shouting: “Do you think it’s OK to drive the dogs around?” but Labor MPs remain tight-lipped as they sat behind Mr Herbert.

When directly asked whether he had raised his voice to his driver, Mr Herbert replied: “I reject the allegations.”

Earlier Mr Herbert has blamed his “really tough job” had “played havoc with my domestic arrangements”, forcing him to use his taxpayer-funded driver to chauffeur his dogs.

However, he took a more regretful tone this morning as he apologised for his mistake and offered to pay back the petrol money wasted on the 120km trips between Trentham and Parkdale.

But he tried to defend himself by saying he used his driver to chauffeur his dogs because “of problems I had with my timetable”.

ROLLING COVERAGE: MPS LASH OUT AT QUESTION TIME OVER DOG SCANDAL

Mr Herbert denied yelling at his driver this morning after he told the Herald Sun yesterday that she had raised concerns about him raising his voice at her.

He said he had “made other domestic arrangements” for his dogs to move between his home and his country house.

“When I was given additional responsibilities for the massive Corrections portfolio, that increased my workload enormously and played havoc with my domestic arrangements,” Mr Herbert said.

“I made a mistake in trying to look after the dogs because of problems I had with my timetabling”

“Being a minister in a senior portfolio, it’s a tough job, it’s a really tough job and sometimes you make mistakes, and this was one of them.”

“It was done because I needed to do something about the dogs, I couldn’t leave them, and I had few options.”

He dismissed claims that he had rorted the system and rejected calls for his resignation, saying: “I’ve got an important job to do. I have apologised for the mistake I’ve made.”

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Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said Mr Herbert had been “caught rorting this system” and should be sacked.

“It is going to fill people with anger to learn that the Andrews Government uses chauffeur-driven government limousines to simply drive around their pets,” Mr Guy said.

“It beggars belief that any minister would expect his staff to walk his dogs ... It is completely and utterly outrageous.”

“Government vehicles are taxpayer resources. You are privileged to have one. They are to be used for work purposes.”

Premier Daniel Andrews is standing by Mr Herbert but Treasurer Tim Pallas said the Department of Premier and Cabinet needed to investigate allegations by Mr Herbert’s driver about his behaviour.

“Clearly this is a matter that goes to the employment and the relationship between the driver and the Minister and those matters will obviously be the subject of inquiry, as is the responsibility of the employer in the context of duty of care,” Mr Pallas said.

“If there are issues of substance that go to behaviour, well, they should be the subject of appropriate inquiry and investigation.”

But he said it would be “over-egging it a bit” to compare the allegations against Mr Herbert to the claims made against former minister Adem Somyurek, who was forced out of Cabinet by the Premier.

Mr Andrews earlier conceded that a minister using his taxpayer-funded car as a taxi service for pooches “doesn’t pass the pub test” and was “not appropriate”.

But the Premier said he was satisfied by Mr Herbert’s apology for failing to meet community expectations and failed to flag taking any further action against the minister.

“He’s done something he acknowledges is not right,” Mr Andrews told ABC 774 radio.

Mr Herbert was last night forced to issue a grovelling apology for the bizarre arrangement that would see his dogs Patch and Ted ferried around by an official government driver while Mr Herbert was at work.

But when initially approached by the Herald Sun last night, Mr Herbert initially justified the two-hour trips, saying “it suited the driver occasionally to pick up the dogs when she was doing nothing”.

Labor MP Steve Herbert's dogs Patch (left) and Ted. Picture: Facebook

“Quite frankly, there was absolutely no issue and if she didn’t want to do it, she didn’t have to,” the minister, whose salary package is worth more than $320,000, said.

Asked how many times it had happened, he said: “No idea, not the foggiest.”

Hours later, Premier Daniel ­Andrews’s government went into damage control and Mr Herbert apologised, admitting that the trips might have been beyond the pale.

“On reflection, this use of the ministerial car does not meet community expectations and I apologise,” he said.

The Herald Sun can reveal the chauffeur would take the dogs from Parkdale to Trentham, before returning to the city to pick up Mr Herbert and take him to his “cute little” pets.

On one occasion, a driver was even asked to take the dogs for a walk.

It comes as we can reveal that Mr Herbert’s third driver in less than two years has made a complaint to her superiors about his behaviour.

She has since quit working for him, with Mr Herbert saying she was concerned he had “raised (his) voice” at her.

A source said the Northern Victoria MP was regarded among parliamentary drivers as “very difficult to work with”.

The revelations place pressure on Mr Andrews to investigate Mr Herbert’s ­actions after he forced Adem Somyurek out of Cabinet over his treatment of his chief of staff.

At the time, the Premier said: “As a government we have set the standard on these issues and, be in no doubt, every member of my team will meet those standards.”

A source says Steve Herbert is regarded among parliamentary drivers as “very difficult to work with”. Picture: Mark Stewart

Labor MP Steve Herbert's dogs Patch (left) and Ted. Picture: Facebook

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said last night: “If Daniel Andrews practised what he preached, he’d sack this minister without delay.”

He said Mr Herbert’s use of his ministerial car was “arrogant and ­totally out of touch”.

Mr Herbert initially tried to explain the pet transport service away, saying: “I have a house in the country and in the city and it suited the driver occasionally to pick up the dogs when she was doing nothing, rather than go home and then come back again.”

Asked if it was appropriate, he said: “They didn’t have to. The alternative was that I could have gone home and then come back.”

But the Herald Sun understands Mr Herbert was recently told to stop letting his dogs ride in the ministerial car.

Asked if he was aware of the complaint about his behaviour, Mr Herbert said: “I think (she) indicated that I raised my voice to her, I understand it was something like that, but I haven’t seen anything like that and it’s not the case,” he said.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet said last night it had not received a complaint from a driver.