Jo Haylen stands in front of a painting in her parliamentary office | nswpol

[Read the full, uncut transcript here.]

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28 March marked ten years since Jo Haylen was first elected to parliament.

The ’15 election also saw much of the current NSW Labor Cabinet, including Premier Chris Minns and Deputy Premier Prue Car, win lower house seats. Haylen’s position in that Cabinet seemed tenuous at times, especially as she presided over a years-long (and still ongoing) dispute between the government and rail unions. But she stood her ground and was supported by a Premier who recognises her potential.

Few foresaw the revelations of ministerial vehicle trips to a Hunter Valley long lunch which, although permitted, unleashed the media storm that ultimately forced her resignation.

As a backbencher now, Haylen still views her past decade in parliament as ‘rewarding’.

It’s an unusually cold sitting day and the afternoon light filters weakly through the windows of Haylen’s parliamentary office. There is nothing remarkable about the space itself; its city-facing views of the State Library rooftop are pleasant enough but hardly absorbing. Several works of art adorn the room, including some exquisite dot paintings as well as an outrageously large diagram of the Sydney rail network. While it provides a fitting backdrop for lengthy transport talk, we had made it clear it wouldn’t be the only focus of the interview.

When Haylen first stepped onto the state parliamentary floor, she brought experience from every other flavour of Australian politics: federal, local and student. But the infamous ‘bear pit’ still caught her off guard.

‘It’s not until you’re really on the floor, in the throes of Question Time, that [its name] becomes real and live for you’, she says.

Notwithstanding its housing of ‘robust’ politics, she says the space still allows for memorable moments, especially ‘where there’s a conscience vote or something happens out of the usual, people step[ping] beyond their usual political lanes’. She names her involvement in the decriminalisation of abortion as one such moment, along with her ongoing campaigning for drug law reform.

Late last year, Labor fulfilled its election promise to hold a drug summit in the first term and a report from the summit was released earlier this year. Haylen says its recommendations ‘hold true to many of the values and ideas [she has] been talking about for a long time — taking a harm minimisation approach to drug law reform’. I point out that those recommendations did not mention decriminalisation, which she has previously called for at a party conference but also as recently as in the last term of parliament. Regardless, she says ‘there are some really important reforms that are contained in those recommendations’, including immediate implementation of a pill testing at music festivals.

‘The recommendation is that pill testing becomes a permanent feature. That’s one of the things that I think we should be doing’, she says.

‘I think we [also] need to look at the way we treat people that are using medical cannabis [… but] we have the blueprint now and that is the recommendations from the drug summit.’

Her electorate of Summer Hill has changed ‘rapidly’ in the decade since she first took office but ‘the Parliament and Government often move much slower than community attitude’, Haylen observes. And although ‘often […] frustrated with processes’, she maintains that the systems work.

‘It takes a long time for good reason; you want to get these things right. […] How we reflect the broader views of the people that we’re here to represent is so important.’

The electorate includes Marrickville and Dulwich Hill train stations, which form part of the delayed metro line extension set to open next year. As Transport Minister, Haylen oversaw the opening of Sydney Metro City, which she sees as helping Sydney join the ‘great global cities of the world [that] have great public transport systems’. In her final speech as Minister, she also said she felt ‘disappointed’ not to have been able to finish the job. So I asked what she reckons still needs to be done.

After a moment of what I assume was her mind returning to the myriad of issues plaguing our state’s five modes of public transport, she answers simply ‘a lot’. ‘There’s always more to do and if you get into this job and you don’t think there’s anything else to do, you should get out, that’s my view’, she remarks, adding that she continues to offer her advice and ideas to her colleagues in Transport. But she eventually settles with a specific answer that the government needs to ‘continue a pipeline of investment for mass transit’, crediting former Liberal premiers for ‘having that big long-term vision’.

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From top left: Greg Warren, Matt Kean, Jenny Leong, Victoria Davidson

Liberal Treasurer Matt Kean, Labor Shadow Minister Greg Warren, Greens MP Jenny Leong and Lane Cove independent candidate Victoria Davidson answered our questions on where they stand on the major issues.

Our full conversations are available at these links: Greg Warren, Jenny Leong and Victoria Davidson. Matt Kean provided written responses.

Climate crisis

Matt Kean: In 2016, NSW was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 just as the Paris Agreement was coming into force.

Since then, we’ve set targets of 50% emissions reduction by 2030 and 70% by 2035 and detailed modelling confirms we’re on track to meet those.

Our Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap is the nation’s most comprehensive renewable energy policy, a plan to replace our retiring coal-fired power stations with five renewable energy zones across the state that will deliver some of the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable electricity anywhere in the world.

Our Electric Vehicle Strategy, recognised by the Electric Vehicle Council as “Australia’s best electric vehicle policy”, sets out a pathway to propel electric vehicles to 52% of new car sales in NSW by 2030–31.

In the next term of Government, the Liberals and Nationals will focus on accelerating the rollout of the Roadmap with our newly announced $1.5 billion Clean Energy Superpower Fund. The Fund will help us bring forward the delivery of transmission infrastructure, renewable energy storage like pumped hydro and grid batteries as well as local energy upgrades like community batteries.

Greg Warren: We want to have a more progressive and proactive approach to climate change which I think is directly relatable to energy prices. Broadly, the privatisation of our energy assets is something that I think we’re all feeling the pinch now from.

We’ve announced a whole raft of things from rebates and then financial support, and the NSW Energy Security Corporation to bring all of that together.

How do we invest into the new technologies of the future? What can we do to restrict or bring down energy prices for local families and businesses whilst in the interim providing them with financial support is something so important?

I think the corporation itself and why it’s such a good thing is because we hear a lot of conversations and we all believe in it and we all say ‘yeah that’s great’, but how do we do it?

I believe our establishment of that corporation will provide us with the mechanisms to do that.

Jenny Leong: You do not have to look very far into our communities to see the devastating impacts of both the climate emergency and the housing crisis.

In the communities in the Northern Rivers, they saw devastating floods as a result of extreme weather events caused by climate change. And at the same time now, they are seeing a housing crisis because of complete failure for the government to step in and deliver the support that is needed.

The Greens want to see an end to coal and gas in New South Wales by 2030 and part of our expectations on the NSW Labor Party is to get to that point. We need to see a commitment out of them that they will not approve any new coal or gas mines in the new parliament.

The climate emergency is here and it is real and we know that the big polluters are profiting out of causing that climate emergency. We need to step up and stop it or we are going to see a real challenge for the future generations, but also for the current generation that is currently suffering as a result of the failure to stand up to the corporate coal and gas giants.

Victoria Davidson: We need to legislate emissions reductions targets, that is the first thing we need to do, and we need to have accountability and transparency in the reporting of those. It is very easy to set some targets, but you have to make those meaningful.

We need a whole-of-government approach to climate change. Every decision that government makes has to take climate change into account. Planning is a really big part of this and public transport is a huge part of this.

Efficient and green public transport is a very important part of us meeting our emissions reductions target and becoming a green economy. We have got to address the hard-to-abate sectors and we have to look at regions that are right now in fossil-fuel industries and help them transition.

This is about a fair and equitable transition for them and for the whole state. No one should be left doing heavy lifting here. What concerns me is with the lack of planning that we have and a lack of strategic overview that things get left almost to the last minute.

We can see this coming. We know this is coming and these coal-dependent regions know this is coming. Of course, they are scared because what are they going to have employ them?

We cannot bury our heads in the sand. We have to take a proactive approach and help people along the way.

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