During her two years in NSW Premier Chris Minns's cabinet, Jo Haylen survived numerous political scandals. But in the end, the minister responsible for the state's public transport was brought undone by her personal use of taxpayer-funded transport. Ms Haylen resigned on Tuesday, two days after admitting her decision to take a chauffeur-driven government car on a 13-hour round trip to a Hunter Valley "long lunch" over the Australia Day long weekend "did not pass the pub test".
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00:00The road to controversy was short. Within months of being sworn in, Jo Halen resisted
00:09calls to step down over what the opposition called a jobs for the boys appointment.
00:13I am not answerable to the upper house or to Liberal Party stunts.
00:21She'd made former Labor staffer and donor Josh Murray Transport Secretary against the
00:25advice of an external recruiter, which branded him a significant risk.
00:30Then there was the Labor-aligned bureaucrat seconded to her office and caught performing
00:34political work whilst employed in a non-partisan role.
00:38Ms Halen faced pressure over what she knew about his activities.
00:42If Chris Minns wants a shred of credibility, she needs to go.
00:45Well I don't want her to. I want her to continue to do the job as Transport Minister in NSW.
00:50This was a job Ms Halen had spent her life working towards. She was the staffer for Julia
00:55Gillard and Anthony Albanese before becoming the Mayor of Marrickville in 2013 and being
01:01elected to State Parliament in 2015.
01:04She learnt just how hard that job could be in recent months as industrial action crippled
01:09the rail network. The Premier defended her after personally intervening in the pay dispute.
01:14You're not going to find a more committed, empathetic, hard-working Transport Minister
01:21than Jo.
01:23Now he'll have to. And with a deal still not done, whoever inherits the portfolio will
01:28have to buckle up.