Take for example former transport minister Jo Haylen. According to her party profile, she is “a passionate advocate for social justice” who “continues to fight for the vulnerable and marginalised”.
Haylen resigned her portfolio last week following revelations by The Daily Telegraph that she, during the Australia Day weekend, procured a government chauffer and vehicle to take her and some friends, including Housing Minister Rose Jackson, to a long lunch at Brokenwood Estate in the Hunter Valley.
No big impost on taxpayers, mind you. Just a 13-hour, 446km return trip that saw the driver travel from Sydney to Haylen’s weekender on the Swansea peninsula, south of Newcastle. Caught out, Haylen uttered a token apology and declared she would pay $750, that being the (very conservative) estimate for the cost of the trip.
It would have been a small price to pay for retaining ministerial office. Unfortunately for Haylen, it soon became obvious she had habitually snapped her fingers for taxpayer-funded chauffeured transport which had very little or no connection with her work, including ferrying her children from her coastal retreat to weekend sport in Sydney, as well as a picnic outing at Little Hartley, west of the Blue Mountains, which just happened to be the home of her then chief of staff.
Bad as those examples were, neither was the clincher. Defending his beleaguered minister, NSW Premier Chris Minns said Haylen’s errant behaviour was a “singular lapse”. As he subsequently discovered during an interview with 2GB’s Ben Fordham, he had been misinformed.
Announcing her resignation, Haylen conceded she had taken a similar trip with her husband to the wine region last year.
“It was not the same circumstances as on the 25th of January,” she said. “I was working on that day, but I acknowledge that the use of my personal driver was an error of judgment by me.”
As to what work she was supposedly doing on that occasion, Haylen did not elaborate and refused to take questions. My bet is she was travelling from winery to winery to fight for the marginalised and the vulnerable. It just may not have been obvious at the time to her driver that the minister was passionately advocating for social justice.
While conceding her conduct did not meet public expectations, Haylen was not above a little self-pity.
“From the very minute I was appointed a Minister, I’ve worked my arse off,” she said.
If anyone knows the definition of hard work it is someone who has never had a full-time job outside politics. As for the ministerial arse, let’s just say it is very discerning when it comes to choosing a cushion to rest upon.
Vindicating the public perception of her ability to self-reflect, Haylen declared she was “incredibly proud” she had “managed to make public transport exciting again”. But evidently not so exciting she would consider actually using it.
No ministerial apology for abusing entitlements would be complete without throwing in that euphemism of having made a “mistake”. Nor for that matter insinuating one’s failings are no worse than everyone else’s. “People aren’t perfect,” said Haylen.
In fairness to her, we all make mistakes. For instance, her constituents in the electorate of Summer Hill made a mistake in voting for her. Minns made a mistake in taking Haylen’s word that the January junket was a one-off. And lastly, there were the party faithful who believed Haylen when she said in her maiden speech “I will never abuse the trust you have put in me”.
Jackson, who is Haylen’s bestie, is also of the Socialist Left faction. The visit to the Hunter was to celebrate her 40th birthday. She was not involved in the planning, but nonetheless it would have been obvious to her Haylen was using public resources for a private event.
When she finally fronted the media, Jackson tried to play the ingenue.
“I probably should have said something but at the time, I didn’t think about it because I was excited by the surprise birthday and surprise lunch,” she said.
So overwhelmed and giddy with delight was she that it did not occur to her to consider whether it was appropriate to use a ministerial driver and vehicle for her birthday outing.
Forgive me for asking, Rose Jackson, but were you turning 40 or 14?
January certainly is the month for getaways. Jackson admitted she had organised a ministerial driver to take her to the airport last month for a holiday to Japan. As The Daily Telegraph reported she claimed she had “been doing work in the car at the time on the way to the airport”.
“I’m really confident that all my use of the driver … meets that public expectation,” she said.
I could think of a few phrases to describe Jackson’s demeanour at the time of that statement. “Really confident”, however, is not one of them. Not surprisingly, she rebuffed calls to make available her car logs for public inspection.
Now compare her behaviour to when Jackson delivered her maiden speech in 2019. On that occasion she pledged to improve the public perception of politicians.
“I am aware of how disconnected ordinary people are from politics, from government,” she said. “So much of that alienation of people from politics we have brought on ourselves.”
It was time, she declared, “to do things differently”.
That was six years ago, and Jackson has had much time to reflect on doing things differently. Presumably between courses of steak tartare and wood-fired squid and while their driver waited outside for them, she and Haylen discussed ways of reconnecting with ordinary people. Incidentally, do you think either of them offered to shout him lunch for his trouble or even so much as threw a packet of crisps his way?
Few things are more enjoyable than a lengthy session in the Hunter with good friends. Been there, done that. But I am not that insouciant or profligate I could get on it for hours on end knowing the meter was running and the taxpayer was paying the fare, not to mention unnecessarily keeping a driver from enjoying the long weekend with his family. Then again, and unlike our two ministers, I am neither a socialist nor a unionist.
Neither minister thought to mitigate the expense by sending the driver back to Sydney after he dropped them off at the winery. An Uber van back to Newcastle would mean splitting $200 among a party of six.
But that would mean having to pay for oneself instead of fobbing it off to Joe Public. And it would be most unreasonable to expect a member of Socialist Left, particularly one who has a base salary of $333,000, to forego that privilege. Social justice, everyone!
In one respect Haylen was right. When it comes to treating themselves at the expense of taxpayers, these hypocrites well and truly work their arses off.
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