Jo Haylen ‘driven out’, resigns from state ministry as use of taxpayer-funded chauffeurs claims scalp

Jo Haylen has resigned after a three-day furore surrounding her use of taxpayer-funded drivers for personal trips, saying it had become too large a distraction for the government.

Jo Haylen fronts the media in Sydney on Tuesday to announce her resignation as NSW transport minister

Jo Haylen resigned as NSW Transport Minister on Tuesday after a three-day furore surrounding her use of taxpayer-funded drivers for personal trips, saying it had become too great a distraction for the government and from its agenda.

Ms Haylen – who will remain MP for Summer Hill – announced her decision in a brief press conference in Sydney, where she read a resignation statement before making her exit without taking questions.

She admitted that “mistakes” were made. “I did not break the rules, but I acknowledge that that’s not the only test here … I’ve let the public down and I’m very sorry for that,” Ms Haylen said.

She apologised on Sunday after it emerged she had summoned a driver on a 450km, 13-hour round trip from Sydney to her Central Coast holiday home, to then take her and five others to a winery for an Australia Day weekend lunch.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson was part of that party, but didn’t have a role in organising the driver.

While within the rules, which are now being tightened, Ms Haylen conceded it “didn’t pass the pub test”. Subsequent trips then emerged in the past two days of a similar, albeit not exact, nature.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said while it was an “error of judgment” there remained “grey areas” within existing ministerial driver guidelines, and Ms Haylen had “paid a high price for that”.

He announced an immediate ban on drivers being used for “exclusively private purposes”, with ministers now able to use the chauffeurs only for “official business” or private usage where it is “incidental” to their role or responsibilities.

Arts and Roads Minister John Graham will be sworn in on Friday to administer Ms Haylen’s old portfolio on an “interim basis”, with Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison having oversight until that point.

Ms Haylen seen leaving her Sydney home on Tuesday morning.

“While private use of ministerial drivers has been permitted … community expectations and standards rightly do not match these rules,” Mr Minns said, commending Ms Haylen’s work overseeing Sydney Metro to its opening date and a “vital” statewide rail repair program.

Defending the former minister, senior Labor figures said while her winery trip was an error, the lines were blurred and it depended on “judgment calls”, adding being driven to events allowed MPs to take calls and work with documents, something that would be harder given the new guidelines.

It is the first ministerial resignation from Mr Minns’ top team since NSW Labor’s 2023 election win, but follows a string of controversies surrounding Ms Haylen.

An experienced minister and staunch ally of the Premier, Ms Haylen was an influential figure from the party’s Left faction that helped propel Mr Minns to the Labor leadership in 2021.

Ms Haylen is a former staffer to Labor prime minister Julia Gillard and deputy chief of staff to Anthony Albanese, the then deputy prime minister, to whom she ­remains close.

Mr Minns had been blindsided on Tuesday morning when, appearing on Sydney’s 2GB radio station, presenter Ben Fordham had alluded to a possible second winery trip where Ms Haylen used a taxpayer-funded chauffeur. The Premier said he’d need to ask Ms Haylen and was “very concerned” but not privy to the details.

Ms Haylen gave her resignation to the Premier in a meeting between the pair soon after.

She said that although she did take a trip last year with her husband to the Hunter Valley, the “circumstances” were different and that she was “working”, while acknowledging that the use of a personal driver was an “error of judgment”.

Ms Haylen is a staunch ally of NSW Premier Chris Minns, who had stood behind her until Tuesday morning

“My mistakes are now causing (the) government damage,” she said. “Politics is tough. Expectations are very high. I know that.”

Senior Labor figures said the last straw knell came with that interview and made Ms Haylen’s exit a matter of when not if.

“I think we thought this would roll over, but when we saw that interview (with Fordham), after Chris had been standing behind her, that was the death knell,” one said.

Ms Haylen said that it “killed her” to know that voters now thought she hadn’t approached public life with “respect and integrity”, conceding the furore surrounding her trip had become a distraction on the government’s “collective effort”.

“It has been a great honour to serve as a senior minister,” Ms Haylen said, thanking Mr Minns and her family.

Labor sources said Ms Haylen’s exit “had to happen”, but others said her exit stripped the government of one of its strongest performers and someone who could “sell a product” to voters.

Mr Graham’s interim stewardship of the high-profile portfolio will allow Mr Minns some breathing space to decide who to promote or shift sideways, particularly during an upcoming month with two sitting weeks followed by budget estimates.

Labor sources said pressure would be on the Premier to install someone from the party’s left – but could promote a “safe pair of hands” already in the ministry, and instead tinker in the back end, possibly introducing two junior ministers to alleviate some of the smaller responsibilities of particularly portfolio-heavy ministers.

Mr Minns this week had slammed but stood by Ms Haylen, but said on Tuesday morning that media reports of a second winery trip using a ministerial chauffeur were “concerning”.

The Wood, the restaurant at Brokenwood Winery in the NSW Hunter Valley where Ms Haylen dined with friends over the Australia Day weekend

After apologising 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”.

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. Mr Minns said he had been assured that those trips were work-related.

Reports then 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.

Although one of the government’s most experienced operators, Ms Haylen 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.

NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman said it had been “three days of weak leadership” before Ms Haylen “fell on her sword”, accusing the Premier of “ hoping the problem would go away”.

“This is because Jo Haylen isn’t just any minister — she’s was one of Chris Minns’ key Left faction allies,” Mr Speakman said.

“The Premier wanted her in cabinet to keep his own job secure. Even when the facts were undeniable, even when new revelations kept emerging, he refused to act.”