David Elliott photo with Scott Morrison that will infuriate Sydney Trains commuters after ‘strike’

The NSW Transport Minister spent the lead up to Sydney’s city-wide train shutdown having a beer at a pub with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Northern Territory.

Millions of commuters were left frustrated last Monday when David Elliott’s department shut down the city’s trains without any notice. 

Daily Mail Australia can reveal Mr Elliott spent the days before the crisis some 3,900km from home in Darwin – even as negotiations between his Government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) hit a major snag. 

Mr Elliott, who is also the state’s Veterans Minister, had travelled to the Territory to take part in last Friday’s Veterans Ministers’ Council. He finished the night by hitting the pub with the PM. 

The next day, Mr Elliott attended the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Darwin during World War II, before attending an orchestra performance at Christchurch Cathedral. 

But while Mr Elliott was in the air flying back to Sydney on Sunday evening, his transport department was at panic stations.  

Mr Elliott’s trip to Darwin included commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Darwin during World War II, which he posted to his Facebook account 

Sydney residents were given no notice the entire city train system was being shut down on Monday, in an unprecedented move. They were forced onto buses, above 

The government realised it had agreed to a deal on Saturday night with the RTBU which included a problematic clause.  

The deal included a provision which meant staff would only do shifts they were set, without any changes. 

Sydney Trains management believed such a provision meant that the network would be unable to operate safely – and the union resisted re-negotiating the deal.

Mr Elliott jetted home to Sydney at 6.30pm on Sunday night.  At 11.10pm Mr Elliott took to social media to vent his anger – not at the transport chaos that was about to hit Sydney, but at police officers whom he thought were mocking the Catholic Church by appearing in a picture with someone dressed as a nun.

Then Mr Elliott went to bed. He made no apologies for not staying up or even being contactable, as others made the decision to shut Sydney’s entire rail network down. 

‘I’m OK that they didn’t call me at 12.30 in the morning because I wouldn’t have answered the phone,’ he said. 

David Elliott also spent his weekend complaining on on social media (pictured) about police officers posing for a picture with someone dressed as a nun

NSW’s Shadow Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen, told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Elliott had ‘one job, and that’s to keep our transport system running.

‘The Minister said he knew there would be “widespread disruption” before he went to bed and turned his phone off,’ Ms Haylen said. 

‘Why did he clock off when he should have been making sure our trains are running?’ 

Sources close to the minister insisted he remained updated on the Fair Work Commission hearing between Transport for NSW and the union during the course of the trip to Darwin. 

Mr Elliott insists he was not told about a complete shutdown was imminent and only that ‘significant delays’ on the trains network were possible. 

Commuters in Sydney were left stranded on Monday as the entire train network shut down. Above, lucky commuters after services resumed

‘My office remained of the view until approximately 1.30[am] that there would be a significant disruption to services but not a total network shutdown,’ he told NSW Parliament.

‘What is clear is that the communication between the department and my office was not sufficiently precise.’

He found out the network has shut down at 4am on Monday when he woke up. 

Premier Dominic Perrottet found out even later, at about 5.30am. He had gone to bed having been told trains would be running in some form on Monday morning. 

Mr Perrottet was not impressed. ‘My expectation is that ministers are available around the clock. I certainly am, and I expect the same of my ministers,’ he said.      

There was chaos in Sydney on Monday, February 21 as the entire rail network shut down. Pictured is an empty Sydney train station

Mr Elliott has ridden out a number of controversies during his time in office. In 2019, when he was the Emergency Services Minister, he flew to London for a family holiday at the beginning of the Black Summer bushfires.  

He turned around and headed back to Sydney after landing at Heathrow, but was criticised for leaving in the first place, a mere week after the furore surrounding Scott Morrison’s trip to Hawaii as the fires raged. 

In 2020, a two-year-old photo of the Mr Elliott posing for photos firing two prohibited weapons emerged, though he was later cleared of any wrongdoing after Corrective Services NSW – who operated the range – apologised for an ‘administrative error’ over its licensing arrangements. 

Mr Perrottet said Mr Elliott still has his confidence after the latest incident, but some of the pair’s ministerial colleagues were furious. 

One minister, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Sydney Morning Herald ‘it was pretty obvious that Elliott had completely messed the whole thing up’.

Another said his position as transport minister was ‘surely untenable’. 

Mr Elliott’s office declined to comment to written questions from Daily Mail Australia.