NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has launched a fierce defence of her office’s involvement in the to a high-paying public service job,saying she did not see any issue with her chief of staff putting forward his friend’s name for the position.
Catley has found herself at the centre of a storm of controversy over the hiring of Jackson,a former Channel Seven producer hired as NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s chief media adviser after a “suggestion” from Catley’s chief of staff,Ross Neilson.
Neilson is a personal acquaintance of Jackson and put the latter’s name forward as a potential candidate for the $300,000 public service job after a request from Webb for help in filling the role.
But the recommendation has come under intense scrutiny after photos began circulating of Jackson sitting next to a naked Sydney socialite taken in her apartment after an interview in December 2019.
Jackson was also involved in Seven’sSpotlight controversial interview with Bruce Lehrmann.
But Catley today denied there was an issue with Neilson’s involvement in Jackson’s hiring and refused to say whether Jackson should still fill the role,saying it was a matter for the police.
“Well,I don’t see a problem here. My chief of staff was asked for names,he provided them,” she said.
Neilson’s friendship with Jackson was unremarkable,she said,because he “has been in and around the media for over 30 years”.
“Look,quite frankly,it would be difficult for my chief of staff to … not know a name he put forward,” she said.
“He’s been in the media for more than 30 years. I mean,he knows a lot of people in the media.
“It is in accordance with the government employment conditions to have those conversations. There was no direction.”