Asks driver to drive 446 kilometers for his lunch: records it as a business trip during working day

How far is too far for lunch? Well, it doesn’t really matter when you’re a politician who has used taxpayers’ money to fund a fancy feast hundreds of kilometers from home.

Jo Haylen, the now former transport minister for New South Wales in Australia, eventually succumbed to pressure to resign from her position after being caught filing an expensive private lunch as business expenses.

As reported by HuffPost, Haylen used an official government car and chauffeur to take her and five friends/associates, including fellow politician Rose Jackson, on a 440-kilometer round trip to a restaurant at Brokenwood Wines winery in Pokolbin, a rural locality in Australia’s Lower Hunter Valley wine region.

440 kilometers, 13 hours for $470 lunch

The transport minister was picked up at her residence in Caves Beach, more than 130 kilometers to the north of Sydney, where the vehicle was coming from, at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 25. The party was away for a total of 13 hours, in which time they spent AU$750 (US$470) of public money.

Although official vehicles are permitted to be used for private trips in New South Wales, filing such trips as clearly business expenses are not, which is where Haylen ran into big issues. It is also thought the fact the excursion took place on a Saturday in the midst of the Australia Day long weekend may have raised suspicions.

Transport minister quits cabinet: “I should’ve taken an Uber”

Haylen initially refused to resign and promised to pay the money back, apologetically claiming she had “made a bad decision” and “should’ve taken an Uber”.

However, she eventually performed a U-turn, quitting cabinet after coming under serious pressure. In a rather curiously-worded official statement, in which she claimed to have “worked her arse off”, she said: “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. It kills me right now that people might think otherwise.”

It was later revealed Haylen had taken a second, similar trip to Lower Hunter Valley wine region.

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