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.
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