NSW Premier Chris Minns does not believe Labor-linked public servants doing political work for his frontbenchers is a widespread problem as he stands by his embattled transport minister.
Jo Haylen has rejected calls to follow her chief of staff out the door after it emerged a department employee - dubbed a "political operative" by the opposition - was involved in political work.
Those actions included organising a Labor barbecue and drafting lines for question time, apparently with the help of artificial intelligence.
The staffer, Kieran Ash, was plucked from the transport department and seconded to Ms Haylen's office after running for Labor at the 2015 state poll and being heavily involved in election campaigns.
It follows opposition claims of "jobs for the boys" over the minister appointing a former Labor premier's chief of staff, Josh Murray, to lead the key department.
The premier on Monday accepted a party barbecue was not in the remit of an apolitical public servant.
But he rejected calls to sack Ms Haylen or direct other ministers to check on their own department liaisons.
While he spoke to Ms Haylen about the matter after it emerged on Friday, Mr Minns said he had not asked what she knew about Mr Ash's conduct.
"It would make sense that she wouldn't (know) because she's got a reasonably big personal office and there's a lot going on in that department," the premier said on Monday.
Lessons had been learned including that Ms Haylen should have taken advice on who was best placed to serve as the conduit between her offices and the department, Mr Minns said.
Citing conduct "of concern", Ms Haylen says she referred Mr Ash to his employer, the transport department, for investigation as soon as she learned of the matter.
But she emphasised on Sunday that he was "a relatively junior public servant" and the emails in question were "a very small number relative to the vast amount of work" done as a liaison officer.
Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said she could not believe the minister was previously unaware Mr Ash had crossed the line.
"He was deliberately chosen, named and requested from the department to come to her office," she said.
"This is a seasoned political operator who she requested, she empowered and now she's cutting loose."
The matter will flare again on Tuesday when the minister faces a budget estimates hearing.
Emails provided to parliament showed Mr Ash appeared to have engaged an AI assistant to write responses for Ms Haylen to anticipated questions.
One August email titled "robot" includes a prompt to "talk like Jo Haylen" and a response attacking the opposition's privatisation of bus services.
The premier quipped he wasn't game to ask if his staff were using AI for his speeches.
But he warned against the practice, given many bots used outdated information.
"If you did feed it into most of the publicly available artificial intelligence systems, they tell you that the premier is Gladys Berejiklian," he said.
