Embattled NSW transport minister Jo Haylen has called it quits following revelations about her use of a taxpayer-funded ministerial car for a winery lunch on the long Australia Day weekend.
It was also revealed this week that Haylen had used government drivers to ferry her and her children between her Lake Macquarie holiday house and Sydney for Saturday sport, among other personal trips.
Haylen – who will remain MP for Summer Hill – announced her decision to leave the top job in a brief press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, where she read a resignation statement before making her exit without taking questions.
“I have made mistakes, people aren’t perfect,” said Haylen, who earlier promised to pay back the $750 cost of the trip to Brokenwood Wines in Pokolbin on January 25.
“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.
“We were elected to be better than the last government.”
Haylen said her “mistakes” are now causing her government damage.
“Politics is tough. Expectations are very high. I know that. From the very minute I was been appointed a Minister, I’ve worked my arse off.
“You don’t switch on and off from being a minister. You don’t switch off being a mum either. Combining the two can be difficult but I’m far from alone when it comes to that daily challenge.
“I’ve always prided myself on trusting in people, and in the goodwill of the public I’m lucky to serve. Treating people with respect and acting with integrity. And that I am loyal, and always will be.
“It kills me right now that people might think otherwise.”
Premier Chris Minns said he would now tighten the rules governing ministerial drivers to ban the types of journeys that Haylen took.
The policy in the minister’s office handbook would be updated to ban the use of ministerial drivers “for exclusively private purposes”, the premier said.
Drivers would 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”.
The change would take effect immediately, Minns said. The premier announced the roads minister, John Graham, would take on the transport portfolio “on an interim basis”.
Haylen had previously been under fire for hiring former Labor staffer Josh Murray to lead the transport department and the apparent use of a public servant in her office for political work.
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