Rose Jackson breaks silence over driver expense scandal

Housing Minister Rose Jackson has broken her silence four days after the ministerial driver expense scandal was revealed, saying she was too “excited” about her birthday to speak up at the time.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson has broken her silence, speaking for the first time since The Daily Telegraph revealed she and former Transport Minister Jo Haylen were chauffeured by a taxpayer-funded ministerial driver to a boozy winery lunch on the Australia Day weekend.

Appearing visibly nervous, Ms Jackson addressed the media on Wednesday morning, four days after the story first broke and after Ms Haylen resigned for her role in booking the vehicle.

When asked why she didn’t speak up about the use of the ministerial driver to ferry the group from Ms Haylen’s Caves Beach holiday home to Brokenwood winery, Ms Jackson said she was too “excited” about her birthday lunch at the time to think about it.

“I probably should have said something but at the time I didn’t think about it because I was excited by a surprise birthday and a surprise lunch,” she said.

“The circumstance of that weekend was a surprise to me – I didn’t even know I was going away. I didn’t know any of the details and had nothing to do with planning logistics.

“I have indicated that I accept responsibility for that.”

Housing Minister Rose Jackson speaks about the ministerial driver expense scandal for the first time. Photographer: Ted Lamb

Ms Jackson insisted that all her other uses of ministerial drivers were reasonable and within the guidelines, however she revealed she had been driven to the airport earlier this year for a personal holiday to Japan. She said she had been doing work in the car at the time on the way to the airport.

Minister for Transport Jo Haylen during her resignation on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Despite insisting her own personal use of the ministerial drivers was in line with public expectations, she refused to voluntarily publicly release her own driver logs.

“I’ve thought back, I’ve wracked my memory and nothing has ever come to my concern, because I have never done anything that would make me, my staff or anyone around me think that it is problematic” she said.

“I’ve always complied with all my obligations and the information that I need to provide to the community is that confidence that I don’t have any concerns about any of my use.”

Answering questions around who paid for the lunch Ms Jackson said she hadn’t seen the bill because it was her birthday but understood the bill had been split.

“I didn’t see the bill because it was my birthday, but my understanding is that it was paid for by the people that were there,” she said.

One day after her resignation over the scandal, Ms Haylen was supported by friends and family, with one supporter delivering flowers to her Marrickville home.

Flowers delivered to the house of former Transport Minister Jo Haylen in Marrickville. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Earlier on Wednesday, Premier Chris Minns revealed Ms Haylen had only had a zoom and phone meeting in the car on a second winery trip taken by the former minister and her husband last year using the ministerial driver.

During her resignation speech on Tuesday, Ms Haylen said she “had been working on that day” but should not have used the ministerial driver.

Mr Minns confirmed that while Ms Haylen did do some work during that trip “it didn’t justify having a driver in the day”.

Despite only a zoom and phone meeting taking place on that trip, Mr Minns said he would not ask Ms Haylen to pay back the cost of the trip.

Jo Haylen’s Caves Beach property

The Premier also revealed that when he first asked Ms Haylen if there had been any other instances of excessive private use of the ministerial vehicle she did not mention the other winery visit with her husband.

She only revealed it after being asked directly by the Premier on Tuesday morning after he was alerted to the trip by the media.

When asked if she lied to him, the Premier responded: “a couple of things can be true at the same time.”

“I don’t think it was reasonable to have a driver but the circumstances were different.”

Mr Minns said he would not do an audit of the driver logs to ensure there had been no bad behaviour from other ministers.

Premier Chris Minns said Ms Haylen did not inform him of the second winery trip when he first asked her if there were other instances of personal use of the ministerial drivers. Picture Thomas Lisson

The Premier said he had asked all his other ministers in cabinet on Monday if there had been other examples of misuse of the ministerial drivers. None had come forward.

“There’s no indication that there’s a similar or analogous example,” he said.

“There would have been private usage, largely incidental with ministerial drivers.

“I trust my colleagues in relation to this.”

Mr Minns also refused to speculate on who would replace Ms Haylen as Transport Minister on a permanent basis and would not say whether he is planning a larger cabinet reshuffle as a result.

“I haven’t made a call on it. The rules of the Labor Party are that the leader makes the decision … but I will talk to my colleagues and we will make a decision together,” he said.

“I genuinely don’t have in my mind’s eye what is going to happen next, I didn’t expect this to happen.”

Originally published as Rose Jackson breaks silence over driver expense scandal