As besieged Transport Minister Jo Haylen prepares for a key budget estimates hearing, the premier says he won’t ask his frontbencher whether she breached the ministerial code.
Premier Chris Minns is refusing to ask Transport Minister Jo Haylen key questions about whether she breached the ministerial code of conduct during a staffing scandal in her office, as the under-siege frontbencher prepares to face a critical budget estimates hearing on Tuesday.can reveal the staffer at the centre of the furore was intimately involved in a wide breadth of policy work and engaged with the premier’s office, ministers and their staffers on political matters.
Despite that, Minns said he has not asked the minister whether she was aware that Ash - who ran the party’s campaign in the seat of Balmain at the last election - may have been straying outside the bounds of his role during conversations with her over the weekend.“I expect my ministers to comply with the ministerial code. You asked me whether I believe this is a breach. I don’t.
Emails released to the parliament on Friday also reveal Ash had extensive dealings with the premier’s staff, other ministerial offices as well as with Labor backbenchers on political matters. On July 4, Ash emailed an article in the Daily Telegraph about NSW Police accessing Roads and Maritime Services data to Haylen’s deputy chief of staff and several other staffers, including Roads Minister John Graham’s director of policy. No departmental staff are included in the correspondence.
“In general terms, how much visibility do we have of these? Just long titles or do they give us drafts of the legislation? Specifically, I’m keen to understand what amendments they are looking to make to the planning act this week,” he wrote.
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