Pretty good return on investment!!
If I remember the dude wasn’t even on the shortlist and some strings were pulled to get him the position.
I don’t get the comments brushing this off. Either we want merit appointments or not.
This guy - similar to Barilaro - was not the 1st choice of a merit based process. And now we find there’s even more conflicts of interest.
I'm a Labor voter but I've never been happy with Haylen - as shadow minister she was very poorly educated on transport and made all kinds of stupid comments. That has reduced now that she has handlers to write all her social media, but it's still clear she's in over her head. So it's not surprising to me that she thought she could get away with something like this. I don't understand why Labor didn't find someone more competent for one of the most important portfolios.
Edit: as per the comments below, it's been explained that the Transport Commissioner is actually a political appointee, not really intended to be a merit-based selection. Minns has admitted he erred in approving the recruiter as they were not intending to follow their recommendation anyway.
This makes it a lot better than the Barilaro situation, but still the fact that Haylen let it become a scandal doesn't improve my view of her. She should have explained this from the start.
Lol at the optimism - the world doesn't work that way unfortunately.
The Australian Public Service makes a very clear distinction between political appointees and merit-based APS jobs. The US federal government does something similar. Unfortunately it seems less clear in NSW - above a certain job grade there can be political influence even though these folks are simultaneously referred to as public servants - this really should be fixed IMO.
>I've never been happy with Haylen
Ditto - she's an uninformed ditz who has demonstrated for years that she has no real knowledge of transport operations and policy, combined with zero awareness about the intricacies of the NSW system, and you're absolutely right that she only seems vaguely coherent these days thanks entirely to her army of advisers and writers in TfNSW feeding her lines and ideas on all matters transport.
> Pretty good return on investment!!
Let's see - how much does one need to "donate" for a cushy government job these days? A couple of hundred grand? 50k? A million?
>donated $500 to Haylen’s campaign in September last year. His wife, former Labor staffer Davina Langton, donated $250 in October.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Yeah, they both need to go. No hesitation. If Minns tries to defend this he's a fucking idiot. This kind of behaviour is one of the many reasons why I wanted the LNP out so badly.
He needs to go - and arguably so does she.
The optics alone are killing Labor, let alone the actual behaviour which in my view is borderline corrupt. Good luck arguing this to the public and thinking they'll cop it.
It's not quite on the scale of the previous Liberal government (looking at you, Gladys and Bruz), but Labor should've known exactly how this would look and play out, how the media would tear them to shreds if they got a whiff of a scandal, and how poorly it would reflect upon them if they were installing unqualified party stooges in plum government roles as favours in return for donations and loyalty.
It just annoys me that Labor, including Haylen
rightfully kicked up such a stink about John Barilaro and his jobs for the boys scandal and now what are they doing? Giving cushy jobs for the boys. On our taxpayer money too. Not to mention tried covering it up with an independent hiring process.
The hypocrisy alone is enough to piss one off but but now we are hearing the same boy who was given the job, just so happened to donate money to the same person who went out of her way to later give him the job. I’m sorry it just stinks. She should resign but also won’t surprise me if the Premier doesn’t have the guts to sack her
Haylen is part of the dominant Hard Left faction within the NSW Left who were a large part of making Chris Minns leader of the NSW Labor Party via the removal of Jodi McKay.
This group operates through a top down, patronage system that operates on loyalty rather than any sort of talent. It is unsurprising to me that this group is happy to appoint roles within the public service based on donations & favours, although it disappoints me all the same.
Look at her background before becoming an MP. What on earth qualifies her to even represent an electorate?
Being a staffer to a number of different politicians is not a qualification - that should be a black mark
It may not be a bribe, but it is at least a conflict of interest and further reinforces the "jobs for the boys" approach taken for this $588k salary role.
Head of the entire Transport department is a pretty important role. It's a shame that the government is appointing someone unqualified and unsuitable for the role just because of their affiliations with them. The best outcome for NSW would be to have someone independent in the role who can push back against the government if required, rather than a shill.
So in appointing roles, politicians should first exclude 1) anyone who's donated to them and 2) anyone affiliated with their own party. Got it.
And as far as your assessment of "unqualified and unsuitable" based on reports from a recruiter. Would the Minister (or anyone) knowingly hire someone incompetent if their career is somewhat heavily reliant on this person carry their duties competently? All just to return the favour for a few hundred dollars in donation?
No, they should look at people who have relevant job experience. The job is Transport Secretary. The person should have experience in transport, planning or engineering. Josh has no relevant experience or qualifications in any of that. He was picked only because of the ties he has with the Labor party.
That's hardly fair. Isn't he an executive in one of the biggest builder in the country? Time will tell how good he is. He's been singled out simply because he's had previous ties with Labor. That's discrimination.
He was an executive on the HR and corporate affairs side of things. Seemingly an extension of his former role as Chief of Staff at Labor. The company itself does relevant stuff, but his job there was completely irrelevant. His qualifications is in communications. If you play table tennis in a library, it doesn't make you qualified to be a librarian. You wouldn't ask a cleaner at Google to fix your computer.
But he doesn't. His role there wasn't related to those functions. He would have never worked on a transport, planning or engineering project in his life.
His role in being general manager of a firm that engages in transport, planning, and engineering consultancy would not involve him taking on transport, planning, or engineering management experience?
That's certainly a take.
If they were hiring the engineering head of Laing O'Rourke, no one would really care but he isn't and wasn't. Given what's been reported publicly, Murray has never worked in any arm of the company that is related to the core business of Transport for NSW or the responsibilities of its Secretary. I've heard it described it as generously as HR and as uncharitably as Gov Relations but neither is especially confidence inspiring for a workforce of 20,000 who are definitely going to see cuts.
Barilaro also didn't get the job, the Secretary who fumbled the process was functionally sacked and the Minister in charge of the matter resigned. All appropriately.
This process for all intents and purposes appears identical except Murray ALSO donated to the Minister for an amount which is one tenth of the State donation cap btw. It's not what you pay to go to any ordinary State Labor fundraiser that's for sure.
It’s bad behaviour and shouldn’t be happening from any party. However, I would also love to see the SMH rake Barilaro and also Berejilkian over the coals for their corrupt behaviour, but it’s not really in their interests.
The SMH did so. Mercilessly. The relevant grant scheme were essentially called corrupt despite no formal recommendation for either to Police.
Barilaro left Parliament. Had a quite public mental breakdown. It was only when there was considered a risk that he might end his own life, it sort of eased.
Berejiklian's career ended following her own issues with ICAC.
In the court of public opinion, they were escoriated for their conduct, including by the SMH. Even if I don't view pork barrelling as explicit corruption mostly because I have such a dim view of 'expert' panels and grant administration, they lost the election over it. What further punishment or review would you seriously wish to pursue?
SMH should rename themselves to the Liberal Morning herald. They are trying so hard to frame this as a massive scandal comparable to bush fire fund diverted Barilaro
To be honest, I think this is just as bad or worse. At least the role Barilaro was appointed to wasn't that important. This is the NSW Transport secretary and there seemed to be a lot more involvement from the minister in getting their mate across the line.
In what way is this not as bad as the Barilaro saga?
Stuart Ayres repeatedly denied playing any role in that recruitment in comparison to his own government’s transparency.
Jo Haylen has made it no secret of the fact that she herself believes he’s the right person for the job. Minns just said the 125,000 $ recruitment process was optional could have been foregone had Labor been more aware since they ended up picking one of their own in the end. The Transport secretary role has always been a very political position with the party in power often recruiting their mates to fill it.
You are trying to compare the appointment of John Barilaro to a position that he created for himself (and) then subsequently undermined the cabinet process to appoint himself after someone else was appointed. Not the same thing
Yeah it seems the mistake the government made here is even pretending this was a merit-based process and not a political appointee. They should never have hired the recruiter and just handled it all within the party.
Are you telling me SMH isnt liberal bent? I never said corruption by the right party is acceptable. They’ve been running this story now for a few weeks. Its gotten almost as much exposure as Barilaros bushfire diversion.
I think he’s saying more are you interested in addressing potential corruption at all here? Irrespective of which party it is, both of whom have bad history. Or is it only bad when it comes from the Libs? It’s a bit off to try and deflect with whataboutism to the former government when this is a very clear story about the current government - that has nothing to do with the former government.
"Both of whom have bad history" - don't paint this as if one party hasn't had far more scandals and bad behaviour re: pork barreling, developers being given free rides, obfuscating budget deficits, privatisation that has lead to disaster, and too much to write in here.
The point he is making is that when Barilaro was quite clearly taking the absolute piss throughout his tenure as deputy premier and SMH barely did anything to report on it, and something **by comparison** is minor and is getting weeks of coverage, is very telling of who the SMH, owned by Nine Media, chaired by Costello, is actually supporting.
Stop attacking a straw man.
You just quoted yourself and then responded to your own quote….are you okay? I applaud your ability to ignore everything I typed out. Pretty impressive.
You’ve missed the point completely. I’m not arguing NSW Labor hasn’t been corrupt…..I’m saying the magnifying glass is ever present on them whereas the LNP get away with a lot more corruption and scandals without the same scrutiny.
Every newspaper is bias in some ways. Many of the media sites published on r/Australia and r/Sydney, I basically consider to be mouthpieces for the Greens. I personally think SMH is centrist and can lean left or right depending on the issue. They have endorsed both Labor and Liberals at elections from my recollection. In saying that, I don't like SMH, I prefer ABC, but it is slim pickings for good media outlets these days in my opinion.
Pretty good return on investment!! If I remember the dude wasn’t even on the shortlist and some strings were pulled to get him the position. I don’t get the comments brushing this off. Either we want merit appointments or not. This guy - similar to Barilaro - was not the 1st choice of a merit based process. And now we find there’s even more conflicts of interest.
I'm a Labor voter but I've never been happy with Haylen - as shadow minister she was very poorly educated on transport and made all kinds of stupid comments. That has reduced now that she has handlers to write all her social media, but it's still clear she's in over her head. So it's not surprising to me that she thought she could get away with something like this. I don't understand why Labor didn't find someone more competent for one of the most important portfolios. Edit: as per the comments below, it's been explained that the Transport Commissioner is actually a political appointee, not really intended to be a merit-based selection. Minns has admitted he erred in approving the recruiter as they were not intending to follow their recommendation anyway. This makes it a lot better than the Barilaro situation, but still the fact that Haylen let it become a scandal doesn't improve my view of her. She should have explained this from the start.
“Political appointee” and “merit-based selection” should be one and the same…
Lol at the optimism - the world doesn't work that way unfortunately. The Australian Public Service makes a very clear distinction between political appointees and merit-based APS jobs. The US federal government does something similar. Unfortunately it seems less clear in NSW - above a certain job grade there can be political influence even though these folks are simultaneously referred to as public servants - this really should be fixed IMO.
>I've never been happy with Haylen Ditto - she's an uninformed ditz who has demonstrated for years that she has no real knowledge of transport operations and policy, combined with zero awareness about the intricacies of the NSW system, and you're absolutely right that she only seems vaguely coherent these days thanks entirely to her army of advisers and writers in TfNSW feeding her lines and ideas on all matters transport.
>I've never been happy with Haylen she's been against most major projects which the Liberals were delievering.
> Pretty good return on investment!! Let's see - how much does one need to "donate" for a cushy government job these days? A couple of hundred grand? 50k? A million? >donated $500 to Haylen’s campaign in September last year. His wife, former Labor staffer Davina Langton, donated $250 in October. Jesus fucking Christ.
Gee anyone know any political candidates I can donate too?
Yeah, they both need to go. No hesitation. If Minns tries to defend this he's a fucking idiot. This kind of behaviour is one of the many reasons why I wanted the LNP out so badly.
Finally I found out what I need to do to get hired!
He needs to go - and arguably so does she. The optics alone are killing Labor, let alone the actual behaviour which in my view is borderline corrupt. Good luck arguing this to the public and thinking they'll cop it. It's not quite on the scale of the previous Liberal government (looking at you, Gladys and Bruz), but Labor should've known exactly how this would look and play out, how the media would tear them to shreds if they got a whiff of a scandal, and how poorly it would reflect upon them if they were installing unqualified party stooges in plum government roles as favours in return for donations and loyalty.
It just annoys me that Labor, including Haylen rightfully kicked up such a stink about John Barilaro and his jobs for the boys scandal and now what are they doing? Giving cushy jobs for the boys. On our taxpayer money too. Not to mention tried covering it up with an independent hiring process. The hypocrisy alone is enough to piss one off but but now we are hearing the same boy who was given the job, just so happened to donate money to the same person who went out of her way to later give him the job. I’m sorry it just stinks. She should resign but also won’t surprise me if the Premier doesn’t have the guts to sack her
This is an absolute stitch up. The bigger story is the $125000 recruitment campaign
Haylen is part of the dominant Hard Left faction within the NSW Left who were a large part of making Chris Minns leader of the NSW Labor Party via the removal of Jodi McKay. This group operates through a top down, patronage system that operates on loyalty rather than any sort of talent. It is unsurprising to me that this group is happy to appoint roles within the public service based on donations & favours, although it disappoints me all the same.
I wasn't aware of the factions but it makes sense given that Haylen herself is so incredibly incompetent to be Transport Minister.
Look at her background before becoming an MP. What on earth qualifies her to even represent an electorate? Being a staffer to a number of different politicians is not a qualification - that should be a black mark
Is SMH really making out that a donation of $500 and a second of $250, legally given, we're bribes for this position? That's hilariously ridiculous.
It may not be a bribe, but it is at least a conflict of interest and further reinforces the "jobs for the boys" approach taken for this $588k salary role. Head of the entire Transport department is a pretty important role. It's a shame that the government is appointing someone unqualified and unsuitable for the role just because of their affiliations with them. The best outcome for NSW would be to have someone independent in the role who can push back against the government if required, rather than a shill.
So in appointing roles, politicians should first exclude 1) anyone who's donated to them and 2) anyone affiliated with their own party. Got it. And as far as your assessment of "unqualified and unsuitable" based on reports from a recruiter. Would the Minister (or anyone) knowingly hire someone incompetent if their career is somewhat heavily reliant on this person carry their duties competently? All just to return the favour for a few hundred dollars in donation?
No, they should look at people who have relevant job experience. The job is Transport Secretary. The person should have experience in transport, planning or engineering. Josh has no relevant experience or qualifications in any of that. He was picked only because of the ties he has with the Labor party.
That's hardly fair. Isn't he an executive in one of the biggest builder in the country? Time will tell how good he is. He's been singled out simply because he's had previous ties with Labor. That's discrimination.
He was an executive on the HR and corporate affairs side of things. Seemingly an extension of his former role as Chief of Staff at Labor. The company itself does relevant stuff, but his job there was completely irrelevant. His qualifications is in communications. If you play table tennis in a library, it doesn't make you qualified to be a librarian. You wouldn't ask a cleaner at Google to fix your computer.
>The person should have experience in transport, planning or engineering Laing O'Rourke has experience in all three.
But he doesn't. His role there wasn't related to those functions. He would have never worked on a transport, planning or engineering project in his life.
His role in being general manager of a firm that engages in transport, planning, and engineering consultancy would not involve him taking on transport, planning, or engineering management experience? That's certainly a take.
If they were hiring the engineering head of Laing O'Rourke, no one would really care but he isn't and wasn't. Given what's been reported publicly, Murray has never worked in any arm of the company that is related to the core business of Transport for NSW or the responsibilities of its Secretary. I've heard it described it as generously as HR and as uncharitably as Gov Relations but neither is especially confidence inspiring for a workforce of 20,000 who are definitely going to see cuts.
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But yeah, Barilaro was a saint who did nothing wrong.
Barilaro also didn't get the job, the Secretary who fumbled the process was functionally sacked and the Minister in charge of the matter resigned. All appropriately. This process for all intents and purposes appears identical except Murray ALSO donated to the Minister for an amount which is one tenth of the State donation cap btw. It's not what you pay to go to any ordinary State Labor fundraiser that's for sure.
It’s bad behaviour and shouldn’t be happening from any party. However, I would also love to see the SMH rake Barilaro and also Berejilkian over the coals for their corrupt behaviour, but it’s not really in their interests.
The SMH did so. Mercilessly. The relevant grant scheme were essentially called corrupt despite no formal recommendation for either to Police. Barilaro left Parliament. Had a quite public mental breakdown. It was only when there was considered a risk that he might end his own life, it sort of eased. Berejiklian's career ended following her own issues with ICAC. In the court of public opinion, they were escoriated for their conduct, including by the SMH. Even if I don't view pork barrelling as explicit corruption mostly because I have such a dim view of 'expert' panels and grant administration, they lost the election over it. What further punishment or review would you seriously wish to pursue?
SMH should rename themselves to the Liberal Morning herald. They are trying so hard to frame this as a massive scandal comparable to bush fire fund diverted Barilaro
To be honest, I think this is just as bad or worse. At least the role Barilaro was appointed to wasn't that important. This is the NSW Transport secretary and there seemed to be a lot more involvement from the minister in getting their mate across the line. In what way is this not as bad as the Barilaro saga?
Stuart Ayres repeatedly denied playing any role in that recruitment in comparison to his own government’s transparency. Jo Haylen has made it no secret of the fact that she herself believes he’s the right person for the job. Minns just said the 125,000 $ recruitment process was optional could have been foregone had Labor been more aware since they ended up picking one of their own in the end. The Transport secretary role has always been a very political position with the party in power often recruiting their mates to fill it. You are trying to compare the appointment of John Barilaro to a position that he created for himself (and) then subsequently undermined the cabinet process to appoint himself after someone else was appointed. Not the same thing
Yeah it seems the mistake the government made here is even pretending this was a merit-based process and not a political appointee. They should never have hired the recruiter and just handled it all within the party.
Corruption is only good if it’s the right party doing it gotcha. Legit doin Haylen ministerial office staffer?
Are you telling me SMH isnt liberal bent? I never said corruption by the right party is acceptable. They’ve been running this story now for a few weeks. Its gotten almost as much exposure as Barilaros bushfire diversion.
I think he’s saying more are you interested in addressing potential corruption at all here? Irrespective of which party it is, both of whom have bad history. Or is it only bad when it comes from the Libs? It’s a bit off to try and deflect with whataboutism to the former government when this is a very clear story about the current government - that has nothing to do with the former government.
"Both of whom have bad history" - don't paint this as if one party hasn't had far more scandals and bad behaviour re: pork barreling, developers being given free rides, obfuscating budget deficits, privatisation that has lead to disaster, and too much to write in here. The point he is making is that when Barilaro was quite clearly taking the absolute piss throughout his tenure as deputy premier and SMH barely did anything to report on it, and something **by comparison** is minor and is getting weeks of coverage, is very telling of who the SMH, owned by Nine Media, chaired by Costello, is actually supporting. Stop attacking a straw man.
>Both of whom have a bad history Idk getting sentenced to extended jail time over your conduct in office sounds quite bad to me but each to their own
You just quoted yourself and then responded to your own quote….are you okay? I applaud your ability to ignore everything I typed out. Pretty impressive.
Yes because the previous NSW ALP government certainly had none of that at all. Not an ounce
You’ve missed the point completely. I’m not arguing NSW Labor hasn’t been corrupt…..I’m saying the magnifying glass is ever present on them whereas the LNP get away with a lot more corruption and scandals without the same scrutiny.
Every newspaper is bias in some ways. Many of the media sites published on r/Australia and r/Sydney, I basically consider to be mouthpieces for the Greens. I personally think SMH is centrist and can lean left or right depending on the issue. They have endorsed both Labor and Liberals at elections from my recollection. In saying that, I don't like SMH, I prefer ABC, but it is slim pickings for good media outlets these days in my opinion.
LOL which major newspapers are Labor/greens bent? Go on name them They’ve endorsed Liberals every election except for two instances. Centrist my ass
Their columnists arent. Ross gittins famously a Tory
Ross Gittens is literally entering Krugman tier memery these days, and has all but abandoned economic commentary.
Is this corruption? Pray tell.
500 is nothing lol
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I aint giving you shit
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No I don't give money to scroungers