Ministers' free private trips to escape extra scrutiny despite Transport Minister Jo Haylen scandal

Further scrutiny of taxpayer-funded, chauffeur-driven car trips will not be undertaken after a senior minister was forced to resign over a boozy winery jaunt.

NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen fell on her sword on Tuesday after she was revealed to have used her ministerial driver to travel from her holiday home to a winery lunch and to ferry her kids 130km to Saturday sport.

But the search for further indiscretions amongst cabinet colleagues had already ended, Premier Chris Minns confirmed on Wednesday.

He dismissed the merit of a wide-scale audit, instead taking ministers at their word their use of drivers had not been egregious.

“The existing rules that are in place are so liberal that an audit would find that it was all within the rules,” Mr Minns said.

Besides losing a key minister, the Haylen scandal forced the premier to rewrite - in “bright red lines” - rules that allowed the use of ministerial drivers for exclusively private purposes.

Private use is now only permitted if the use is incidental to the discharge of a minister’s official duties.

Ms Haylen’s calling on a driver from Sydney to ferry her, her husband and four others from her Caves Beach holiday home to a winery and back over the Australia Day long weekend showed disrespect to the public servant, the premier said.

“I don’t want (the public) thinking that we’re running around like Louis the 14th’s court being waited on hand and foot by people,” he said.

“The general culture (in cabinet) is one of humility and gratitude that we’re in this position.”

While Ms Haylen will refund taxpayers the $750 cost of the January 25 trip, she won’t be forced to cover other private trips.

That includes the trip to her children’s weekend sport, another to the Blue Mountains and one to a winery in Hunter Valley during which she says she took a handful of work calls.

The outgoing transport minister, who had made headlines as the face of the government’s bitter wages dispute with rail workers and hiring a former Labor staffer to head her department, said it “kills her” that people might think she had not acted with integrity.

“I’ve always prided myself on trusting in people, and in the goodwill of the public I’m lucky to serve ... treating people with respect and acting with integrity, and that I am loyal, and always will be,” Ms Haylen said while a prepared statement on Tuesday.

Her departure will force the Labor government’s first major ministerial reshuffle since coming to power in March 2023.

Roads Minister John Graham will take on the vacant transport portfolio in the interim, with early speculation he will retain it long-term.

But he could be forced to shed responsibilities for arts, the night-time economy and special minister for state.