The New South Wales premier says Jo Haylen had to go once a second Hunter Valley trip using a chauffeur-driven car was revealed – and it became obvious she was not “justified” in having a ministerial driver that day.
Chris Minns addressed the media on Wednesday for the first time after Haylen quit as transport minister on Tuesday over the use of taxpayer-funded cars for private purposes.
It emerged on the weekend that Haylen had asked her chauffeur to take her and some friends to a winery lunch on the Australia Day weekend. It involved a 13-hour 446km round-trip for the driver from Sydney to Haylen’s holiday house at Caves Beach and then to a Hunter Valley winery.
Haylen admitted at a snap press conference on Tuesday she had also taken another trip to the Hunter Valley with her husband using a ministerial car in 2024.
“I was working on that day, but I acknowledge that the use of my personal driver was an error of judgment by me,” Haylen said.
Minns on Wednesday said he had discussed the 2024 trip with Haylen before she resigned and while “there was work that took place, in all candour [it was] mainly over the phone and on Zoom”.
“So not directly analogous to the Australia Day [weekend] trip but … we were both in agreement it didn’t justify having a driver on the day and as a result of that her position just wasn’t tenable in the NSW cabinet.
“Work took place on the day but certainly not extensive enough to justify having a driver.”
It was reported on Monday that Haylen also used a taxpayer-funded driver to ferry herself and her children from Caves Beach – about 100km north of Sydney – to the city for weekend sporting events.
The ex-transport minister additionally used a ministerial car to take her family west of the Blue Mountains for a lunch. Minns on Tuesday said Haylen insisted she was travelling for work on those trips.
Ministerial cars and drivers could be used for private purposes under the rules in place at the time. But Minns has this week changed the guidelines to ban using ministerial drivers “for exclusively private purposes”.
Drivers would now only be used “for official business purposes” or “for private purposes if the use is incidental to the discharge of the minister’s official duties”.
Minns said Haylen would not have to pay back the cost of the 2024 Hunter Valley trip because she had “paid a big financial, personal and professional penalty” by being dumped from the ministry.
The Labor leader said on Wednesday the government would not conduct an audit of other MPs’ use of ministerial cars.
Cabinet had discussed the issue and the premier was not aware of any analogous circumstances, Minns said, adding he trusted his colleagues.
“The existing [previous] rules … are so liberal [that] an audit would find that it was all within the rules,” he said.
Minns stopped short of suggesting Haylen had misled him by not revealing the 2024 Hunter Valley trip when quizzed after the Australia Day weekend trip was revealed.
Haylen said on Sunday she could not recall any similar trips – both to reporters and the premier.
“A couple of things can be true at the same time,” Minns said when asked if Haylen had lied to him.
Fellow NSW Labor frontbencher Rose Jackson – a close friend of Haylen – was in the chauffeur-driven van from Caves Beach to Brokenwood Wines in Pokolbin on the Australia Day weekend.
Jackson said the visit to Haylen’s holiday house and the subsequent drive to the winery on 25 January were a surprise to celebrate her birthday.
“The circumstance of that weekend was a surprise to me,” the housing and mental health minister said on Wednesday.
“I didn’t even know I was going away, certainly didn’t know any of the details, had nothing to do with planning the logistics, had nothing to do with any of the bookings [and] had no knowledge of any of those arrangements.
“I got in the car as a passenger. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, 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.”
Jackson said she only realised a ministerial driver had been summoned as she walked out of the holiday house and saw the car – but she didn’t protest.
“I didn’t realise what the arrangements were and I didn’t think about it and so I just got in the car,” she said.
Jackson said separately she was confident she hadn’t used a ministerial driver herself in violation of the guidelines or the “public expectation test”.
The minister acknowledged she had used taxpayer-funded cars for trips with family that may have “blurred” the line between professional and personal use – such as a ride to the airport before they travelled to Japan – but argued she took work calls or had confidential briefings in the vehicle.
