Minister’s office pushed for former Labor staffer to get top job

Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s office intervened to have a former Labor staffer added to a shortlist of candidates to become the state’s new transport secretary.

On Thursday Haylen revealed that her office had asked for Josh Murray, a former Laing O’Rourke executive and chief of staff to former Labor premier Morris Iemma, to be added to a shortlist of candidates to head the transport department because she believed he was the “right person for the job”.

‘My preferred candidate’: Jo Haylen has defended hiring a former Labor staffer as the state’s new transport secretary.Credit: Jessica Hromas

Murray was announced as transport secretary in June after what the government said was a “market testing and recruitment process” led by Acting Secretary of the Premier’s Department Peter Duncan “in consultation” with Haylen.

But after radio station 2GB reported on Thursday that Murray was the preferred candidate for the role, Haylen said he had been one of two candidates put forward for the role by a three-person recruitment panel.

Haylen refused to say whether that panel – made up of federal infrastructure department boss Jim Betts, Duncan, and NSW Public Service Commissioner Kathrina Lo – had recommended an individual candidate for the job.

“I got my preferred candidate,” she said.

She said the panel had “interviewed a list of candidates” and then “gave me two names”. One of those, she said, was Murray.

“I met with both of those candidates and I decided that Josh Murray was the right person for the job,” she said.

But during an interview with 2GB on Thursday, Haylen admitted Murray had only been added to the shortlist of candidates after her office asked for him to be added.

“Yes, my office did provide additional names to be interviewed and all of those names were interviewed by the independent panel,” she said.

“So this was a proper process, but most importantly here in the end, I am within my rights to express who I prefer. I did that, and I believe we’ve got the right person for the job,” she said.

Under the NSW Government Sector Employment Act, ministers can directly appointment department bosses. But the government hired executive headhunting firm NGS Global to find a new secretary, and Haylen insisted she set up a “proper process” to hire Murray.

“I could have called the premier on my way back from Government House [after being sworn in] and said, you know what, this is the guy I want for the secretary of transport,” she said. “I didn’t do that. I ran a proper process and I stand by it.”

The Herald has previously revealed Haylen met with Murray just days after the party won power at the March election. The role has been criticised by the Coalition as a “jobs for the boys” appointment because of Murray’s links to Labor.

The April 4 meeting – described as a “transport portfolio discussion” in the public disclosures – took place a week before the previous transport secretary Rob Sharp was sacked as part of a dramatic shake-up of the public service.

Haylen insisted that meeting was not an interview.

The government will next week be forced to deliver documents relating to Murray’s hiring after the Coalition and cross-bench passed a call for papers motion through parliament.

The Coalition has argued Murray was not qualified for the job, something Haylen disputed, citing his experience working for infrastructure giant Laing O’Rourke.

Opposition roads minister Natalie Ward said the government should offer a “full explanation” of the process, calling for Premier Chris Minns to explain what he knew about the job.

“Either the premier knowingly approved the appointment of a clearly underqualified former Labor staffer to a senior role in the NSW Public Service, or he was wilfully unaware of what his minister was doing under his nose,” she said.

“Either way it’s not good enough.”

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