Minns to probe alleged second winery trip as minister hangs by thread
NSW Premier will probe embattled transport minister Jo Haylen after reports emerged of a second winery trip using a taxpayer-funded ministerial car.
NSW Premier Chris Minns will probe his embattled transport minister after reports emerged of a second winery trip using a taxpayer-funded ministerial car as the state government scrambled to contain the fallout.
Jo Haylen is battling to keep her job – the premier has so far slammed but backed her – amid allegations she consistently used a ministerial driver for trips that “didn’t pass the pub test”, albeit each were within the rules, which are now being tightened.
Pictured leaving her inner west home in front of a throng of reporters on Tuesday, Ms Haylen was smiling but declined to comment before she was whisked away, likely to government offices in Sydney’s CBD.
She remains clinging to her ministerial role after apologising for booking a ministerial driver for a 446-km, 13-hour round trip from Sydney to her Central Coast home, with a jaunt to a Hunter Valley winery for lunch, with five others on the Australia Day weekend.
Housing Minister Rose Jackson was part of that party, but didn’t have a role in organising the taxpayer-funded chauffeur.
On Tuesday morning, in an interview with Ben Fordham on Sydney’s 2GB, Mr Minns defended his decision not to sack Ms Haylen, but was blindsided by allegations of further trips.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do if, as I’m informed, another example comes out … Another winery (and) wine tasting trip last year,” Mr Fordham said.
Mr Minns said he was unaware of this trip but he would be “very concerned” if there was another example.
“Based on the information I have at the moment, I expect that the rules must be changed, and more importantly the behaviour must change,” the premier said.
“If there’s other information and it comes to light and it’s presented to me, I can’t predict the future. Obviously, I have to take that into consideration. It would weigh very heavily on me.”
After apologising on Sunday and promising to pay back the cost of the Australia Day weekend trip, Ms Haylen said she couldn’t recall other examples but said that there were “grey areas”.
Ms Haylen’s trips were within the guidelines for ministerial drivers, but she conceded that summoning one from Sydney to then take her onward to a personal lunch at a winery “didn’t pass the pub test”.
On Monday, it emerged she had routinely summoned a driver from Sydney to her Central Coast holiday home to take her and one of her children to sports games, but Mr Minns said he had been assured that those trips were work related.
Later that day, reports surfaced she had also taken a taxpayer-funded car to a picnic west of the Blue Mountains, hosted at a home by her then chief of staff.
Despite her apology and backing from the premier, Ms Haylen has pulled out of Tuesday’s annual Sydney Summit, hosted by think tank Committee for Sydney.
She is one of the premier’s staunchest allies and backers from Labor’s Left faction, and one of the government’s most-experienced ministers, but has been error prone since assuming office, previously surviving allegations of “jobs for mates” in pushing for a friend to get Transport NSW’s top job and later when an apolitical departmental staffer was found doing political work in her office.
On Tuesday, the state Opposition’s acting transport spokesman, Damien Tudehope, demanded Ms Haylen and Ms Jackson’s resignations, calling on the premier to wield the ministerial axe if those weren’t forthcoming.
“Chris Minns is too weak to act because he relies on the hard-left faction that helped put him in the job,” he said.
On Monday, Mr Minns slammed a “massive error of judgment” by his ministers, saying it went against the ALP’s values, but refrained from sacking the pair.
Mr Minns confirmed he would change rules around the use of taxpayer-funded ministerial cars – ministers currently can use them for personal trips – and said the incident was a “shocker” and it had self-inflicted a “black eye” on his government’s reputation.
“I’ve made it very clear to them that I regard (the booking) as a major error,” Mr Minns said.
“It gives the government a bad reputation, and I think that many people in the community would be very unhappy with the actions of my government.”
Mr Minns on Monday also criticised the treatment of the driver during the winery run, saying it went against the ALP’s values.
“We’re the Labor Party, which was founded on the premise of respecting and treating workers with respect,” he said.
“It’s (poor) treatment of a hardworking public servant who shouldn’t be treated in this matter.
“I expect all my ministerial colleagues to not just abide by the rules as they’re written, but to show good judgment when dealing with the public money.”
Refusing to sack the pair, Mr Minns said it was important that there was “continuity” in both the transport and housing portfolios, adding he needed Ms Haylen and Ms Jackson’s “experience”, and that he was “confident” both had learned from the “error”.
NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman called on both Ms Haylen and Ms Jackson to resign over the use of the ministerial vehicle, saying it was “an abuse of taxpayer funds”.
“With that privilege, and it is a privilege, comes the responsibility to use it appropriately, and it can’t be appropriate to get an agency to ferry your mates around to a boozy lunch in the Hunter Valley at taxpayer expense,” he said on Monday.
“You don’t need guidelines to tell you that, and that’s why this minister has acted wrongly and she needs to go.”
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