Employer couldn't name who received the alleged leak - and that gap proved fatal
A ministerial driver accused of leaking confidential information that contributed to a NSW transport minister's resignation has kept his job after the Industrial Relations Commission found the case against him was built on suspicion, not proof.
The driver had worked in the NSW public sector since May 2022 and began duties as a ministerial driver in July that year. His role included transporting the then Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen, and he was subject to strict confidentiality obligations covering ministers' movements, activities and transport arrangements.
The trouble started with a road trip.
On January 25, 2025, the driver collected Haylen, fellow minister Rose Jackson and four other passengers from Caves Beach, NSW. He drove the group to the Hunter Valley, waited, then returned them to Caves Beach before heading back to Sydney.
A week later, The Daily Telegraph published an article about the trip. A second article followed the next day, this one about Haylen's use of ministerial transport to travel to an event at Little Hartley in June 2024. The coverage generated substantial public and political attention, and on February 4, 2025, Haylen resigned as Minister for Transport.
That sequence of events set the investigation in motion.
An inquiry that initially focused on an unrelated matter - an apparent unauthorised disclosure about another minister's attendance at a State of Origin event...
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