The head of the New South Wales Transport department has produced a dossier of documents he claims showed staff in transport minister David Elliott’s office – including his chief of staff – were fully briefed about last week’s rail shutdown, despite the minister’s claim he was left in the dark about the closure.
In the days after the shutdown of the state’s rail network, the NSW transport secretary, Rob Sharp, produced a detailed timeline of the hours leading up to last week’s rail shutdown in which he insisted that the minister’s office was fully informed of the closure.
The dossier of documents, released on Thursday, include the chronology of events to defend his department’s role in the closure.
In it, Sharp stated the department was in “ongoing consultation” with Elliott’s chief of staff “throughout the day” on the Sunday prior to the shutdown, and cites a message which he insisted confirmed “Minister Elliott’s approval”.
It followed Elliott’s insistence that the first he became aware of the shutdown was on Monday morning after the decision was made.
In the document, Sharp included a previously reported text message sent by a senior transport official, Megan Bourke-O’Neil, to Elliott’s chief of staff at 10.43pm in which she warned of “massive disruption” on the network after failed negotiations between the government and the state’s rail union ahead of planned industrial action.
Elliott has previously insisted that the text message did not prove he was aware of the shutdown, because it did not explicitly mention a closure of the network.
But the timeline also reveals that Bourke-O’Neil called Elliott’s chief of staff after the text message, a conversation which is now the subject of significant tension between the department and Elliott’s office.
Sharp’s timeline states that in the call Bourke-O’Neil “conveyed [an] assessment of network risks” and the view of Sydney Trains that rail services “could not be run safely and reliably” as a result of the failure to reach an agreement with the union.
But that version is disputed by Elliott, and Guardian Australia understands that his office has insisted they weren’t briefed on the shutdown, and that the Sunday night phone conversation related to the need to re-list an application before the Fair Work Commission following Sunday’s failed negotiation with the union.
After the conversation, Elliott’s chief of staff texted 56 minutes later to say that Elliott had been “briefed” on the decision and was “comfortable with our position”.
Bourke-O’Neil’s account of the conversation would have been the subject of detailed questioning at parliamentary estimates hearings this week, but 24 hours before being due to appear this week, she was placed on “directed” leave by Sharp.
Labelled a “cover up” and “scapegoating” by shadow transport minister, Jo Haylen, it means Bourke-O’Neil’s version of the conversation has remained secret.
However the documents also show that as late as 11.43pm, Elliott’s chief of staff was informing staff in the premier’s office of “significant disruptions” and not a full-scale shutdown.
“Advice is that we will not be able to run many trains,” she said in a text to Perrottet’s chief of staff Bran Black and other senior staff members in the premier’s office.
“It’s going to be a rough one or two days.”
Documents released through parliament on Thursday also show that department staff were discussing the views of the minister on the shutdown late on Sunday evening.
As negotiations between government lawyers and the union broke down, Sharp asked one of his senior officials whether they could apply for a “termination” of the union’s protected action.
In a message, the official tells Sharp there was concern about the “Ministers view of potentially having a number of days of disruption or full stoppages while we are in the hearing on potential termination and/or suspension”.
It was unclear whether the official was indicating a concern previously expressed by the minister, or contemplating a potential concern from seeking a termination.
Elliott’s handling of the shutdown was the subject of fierce criticism after revealed he had gone to bed before the decision to stop the trains had been made.
Perrottet rebuked him for the decision, saying he “will reflect on that and realise that all ministers are available 24/7”. The premier also held a meeting with both Elliott and Sharp in which he ordered all future briefings on significant changes in the network to be given in writing.
But the documents released through parliament on Thursday show the department’s insistence that it fulfilled its legal obligations to inform the minister before making a decision to close the network.
The timeline produced by Sharp was provided to the secretary of the department of premier and cabinet, Michael Coutts-Trotter, as well as Black, after the premier called for an internal investigation of the events leading up to the closure.
Labor has continued to call for Elliott’s resignation after the shutdown.
Haylen claimed the documents showed Elliott had “misled” the public by saying he did not know about the looming shutdown.
“He knew it would happen and he signed off on it,” she said.”
Comment is being sought from the minister.
