Premier Chris Minns slams ministers Jo Haylen and Rose Jackson’s taxpayer-funded Hunter Valley winery tour

NSW Premier Chris Minns is struggling to keep a lid on spiralling reports his transport minister, Jo Haylen, summoned a ministerial driver multiple times for ‘personal use’, saying he was unaware of a possible second winery trip.

Brokenwood Wines in Pokolbin, NSW, where ministers Jo Haylen and Rose Jackson took a ministerial car to enjoy a three-hour Australia Day weekend lunch.

NSW Premier Chris Minns is struggling to keep a lid on spiralling reports his transport minister, Jo Haylen, summoned a ministerial driver multiple times for “personal use”, saying on Tuesday morning he was unaware of a possible second winery trip.

Ms 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.

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.”

The furore started on Sunday when it was revealed Ms Haylen had booked a ministerial driver for a 13-hour round trip for herself and five others, including Housing Minister Rose Jackson, to travel from her Central Coast holiday home to the Hunter for a winery lunch on the Australia Day weekend.

Ms Haylen has on multiple occasions used the taxpayer-funded ministerial drivers for personal trips, including taking her children to weekend sport in Sydney and, according to The Daily Telegraph, a weekend picnic in regional NSW to a home of her now-former chief of staff.

Mr Minns said he quizzed the minister on these trips, and she assured him she was also on the way to work when the children were being taken to sport.

Ms Haylen, one of the premier’s staunchest allies and backers from the Labor’s Left, is 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.

Yesterday Mr Minns slammed a “massive error of judgment” by ministers Ms Haylen and Ms Jackson after a 13-hour, taxpayer-funded ministerial car ferried them to a winery lunch, 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 he was confident that it was the “only incident” of a similar nature, despite Ms Haylen defending her “movements” on Monday after further reports alleged she had also summoned the car to the Central Coast to take her children to sports games in Sydney.

It comes after it was revealed that Ms Haylen, the transport minister, summoned a ministerial driver on a 446-kilometre, 13-hour round-trip from Sydney to chauffeur her and a group of friends to a lunch at a Hunter Valley winery on January 25 during the Australia Day weekend.

For that trip, which was also attended by Ms Jackson, the state housing minister, the driver travelled from Sydney to Ms Haylen’s Caves Beach holiday house before driving them to a separate jaunt at the Brokenwood winery for a three-hour lunch, which included bottles of wine, steak tartare and wood-fired squid.

The premier said the booking of the car for a personal weekend winery meal 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.”

Ms Haylen apologised on Sunday and said the $750 cost of the transportation would be repaid, accepting the decision to arrange the driver “purely for private purposes” was a “mistake” and that while it was within the rules it didn’t “pass the pub test”.

But on Monday, the minister was forced to defend further allegations of using the car for personal use after reports alleged that she had repeatedly sought trips from her holiday home down to Sydney to take her children to weekend sports games, about a 300km-round trip.

Ms Haylen said she would not “provide a running commentary” on her movements, adding that her car usage was within the “formal guidelines” and that she backed the premier’s review of those rules.

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”.

Both ministers are influential in the party’s left, staunch allies of the premier, and played key roles in shepherding left-faction support to Mr Minns during his successful 2021 leadership bid.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Housing Minister Rose Jackson. Picture: Nikki Short

Mr Minns said he “understood” that the trip was the only one of a similar nature and that while Ms Jackson wasn’t involved with the car’s booking, she should have raised its inappropriateness.

“I think the best thing I can do is look at changing the rules to ensure that this isn’t done again,” he said, adding that it was out of character for Ms Haylen, given she held herself normally in public life with “dignity and respect”.

Ms Haylen apologised for the use of the driver – saying it “didn’t pass the pub test” – and promised to pay back the $750 trip.

“I made the wrong decision here. I apologise for it,” she said on Sunday, adding she couldn’t confirm she hadn’t used the ministerial driver in similar personal capacities previously.

The Wood, the restaurant at Brokenwood Winery, in NSW’s Hunter Region, where the party dined on steak tartare and bottles of wine.

Ministerial driver shifts over 12 hours require a signed risk safety assessment and additional check-ins. Despite the vehicle logbook registering a 13-hour trip, a Premier’s Department spokesman said the driver’s shift did not exceed 12 hours, meaning no safety assessment was required.

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.”