Minister for Transport (New South Wales)

The Minister for Transport is a minister in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibilities which include transport policy and regulation, to setting of fares and concessions for rail, ferry, bus and light rail transport, and the administration of maritime facilities in New South Wales, Australia.

Minister for Transport
Incumbent John Graham since 6 February 2025
Department of Transport
Style	The Honourable
Nominator	Premier of New South Wales
Appointer	Governor of New South Wales
Term length	At the governor's pleasure
Inaugural holder	Richard Ball (as Minister for Railways)
Formation	15 November 1916 (as Minister for Railways)

The current Minister for Transport has been John Graham since 6 February 2025 following the resignation of Jo Haylen. The Minister for Transport is assisted in the management of the portfolio by:

• Minister for Roads, currently Jenny Aitchison, who has responsibility of the development of road infrastructure and road pricing, and taxi and hire car policy and regulation in the metropolitan parts of the state.
• Minister for Regional Transport, currently Jenny Aitchison, who has responsibilities of the development of road infrastructure and road pricing, and taxi and hire car policy and regulation in the regional parts of the state.

Graham was sworn in on 6 February 2025 as Transport Minister and sworn in on 28 March 2023 as Minister for Roads. Aitchison was sworn in on 5 April 2023 as Minister for Regional Transport and Roads. Together, they administer the portfolio through the Department of Transport (Transport for NSW) and a range of other government agencies that coordinate funding arrangements for transport operators, including hundreds of local and community transport operators.^[1]

On 17 March 2025, it was announced that Graham would stay on following his Acting tenure as Minister for Transport.^[2]

Role and responsibilities

Minister for Railways (1916–1929)

The first public railway line in New South Wales was the Sydney–Parramatta Railway which opened on 26 September 1855.^[3] Railways were operated by New South Wales Government Railways which was under the supervision of a single Commissioner for Railways until 1888, 3 commissioners until 1907,^[4] before returning to a Chief Commissioner from 1907.^[5] The Treasurer had ministerial responsibility for railways.^[6]

The portfolio of Minister for Railways was created in the Holman Nationalist ministry and had operational responsibility for the railways while the Secretary for Public Works had responsibility for authorising expenditure on any new lines or extensions that exceeded £20,000. The separation however was only at a department level as the portfolio was always held by the Secretary for Public Works.^[6]

In the second Fuller ministry the portfolio of Labour and Industry was divided up, with the Minister for Railways receiving the additional responsibilities for state industrial enterprises.^[7] The portfolio returned to be the Minister for Railways from the first Lang ministry.

Colonial Treasurer and Minister for Transport (1929–present)

On 16 April 1929 Ernest Buttenshaw, the Secretary for Public Works and Minister for Railways, became Acting Premier during the absence of Thomas Bavin and resigned the railways portfolio. The ministerial office was not filled and instead the railways department was administered by the Colonial Treasurer.^[8] The operation of railways remained the responsibility of the Treasurer in the third Lang ministry until 22 March 1932. The portfolio of Minister for Transport was created under Ministry of Transport Act No. 3, 1932.^[9][10][8]

List of ministers

Transport

The following individuals have been appointed as Ministers for Transport, or similar titles.^[9]

Ministerial title	Minister [9]	Party		Ministry	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Minister for Railways	Richard Ball		Nationalist	Holman (2)	15 November 1919	12 April 1920	149 days
	John Estell		Labor	Storey Dooley (1)	12 April 1920	20 December 1921	1 year, 252 days
	Sir Thomas Henley		Nationalist	Fuller (1)	20 December 1921 a.m.	20 December 1921 p.m.	7 hours
	John Estell		Labor	Dooley (2)	20 December 1921	13 April 1922	114 days
Minister for Railways and State Industrial Enterprises	Sir Thomas Henley		Nationalist	Fuller (2)	13 April 1922	19 June 1922	67 days
	Richard Ball				28 June 1922	17 June 1925	2 years, 354 days
Minister for Railways	Martin Flannery		Labor	Lang (1)	17 June 1925	26 May 1927	1 year, 343 days
	Bill Ratcliffe			Lang (2)	27 May 1927	18 October 1927	144 days
	Ernest Buttenshaw		Country	Bavin	18 October 1927	16 April 1929	1 year, 180 days
Minister for Transport	James McGirr		Lang Labor	Lang (3)	22 March 1932	13 May 1932	52 days
	Michael Bruxner		Country	Stevens (1) (2) (3) Mair	16 May 1932	16 May 1941	9 years, 3 days
	Maurice O'Sullivan		Labor	McKell (1) (2) McGirr (1) (2)	16 May 1941	30 June 1950	9 years, 45 days
	Bill Sheahan			McGirr (3) Cahill (1)	30 June 1950	23 February 1953	2 years, 238 days
	Clarrie Martin			Cahill (2)	23 February 1953	5 September 1953	194 days
	Joseph Cahill				7 September 1953	16 September 1953	9 days
	Ernest Wetherell				16 September 1953	15 March 1956	2 years, 181 days
	George Enticknap			Cahill (3) (4) Heffron (1)	15 March 1956	31 May 1960	4 years, 76 days
	John McMahon			Heffron (1) (2) Renshaw	31 May 1960	13 May 1965	4 years, 348 days
	Milton Morris		Liberal	Askin (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)	13 May 1965	3 January 1975	9 years, 235 days
	Wal Fife [a]			Lewis (1)	3 January 1975	10 October 1975	280 days
	Max Ruddock [a]			Lewis (1) (2)	10 October 1975	23 January 1976	105 days
	Tim Bruxner [a]		Country	Willis	23 January 1976	14 May 1976	112 days
	Peter Cox [b]		Labor	Wran (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)	14 May 1976	5 April 1984	7 years, 327 days
	Barrie Unsworth			Wran (7) (8)	5 April 1984	6 February 1986	1 year, 307 days
	Ron Mulock			Unsworth	6 February 1986	26 November 1987	1 year, 293 days
	Terry Sheahan				26 November 1987	21 March 1988	116 days
	Bruce Baird [c]		Liberal	Greiner (1) (2) Fahey (1) (2) (3)	25 March 1988	4 April 1995	7 years, 14 days
	Brian Langton		Labor	Carr (1)	4 April 1995	1 December 1997	2 years, 241 days
	Carl Scully			Carr (2) (3)	1 December 1997	2 April 2003	5 years, 122 days
Minister for Transport Services	Michael Costa			Carr (4)	2 April 2003	21 January 2005	1 year, 294 days
Minister for Transport	John Watkins			Iemma (1) (2)	21 January 2005	8 September 2008	3 years, 231 days
	David Campbell			Rees	8 September 2008	4 December 2009	1 year, 254 days
Minister for Transport and Roads				Keneally	8 December 2009	20 May 2010
Minister for Transport	John Robertson				21 May 2010	28 March 2011	311 days
	Gladys Berejiklian		Liberal	O'Farrell Baird (1)	4 April 2011	1 April 2015	3 years, 362 days
Minister for Transport and Infrastructure	Andrew Constance			Baird (2) Berejiklian (1)	2 April 2015	2 April 2019	6 years, 186 days
Minister for Transport and Roads				Berejiklian (2)	2 April 2019	5 October 2021
	Rob Stokes			Perrottet (1)	6 October 2021	21 December 2021	76 days
Minister for Transport	David Elliott			Perrottet (2)	21 December 2021	28 March 2023	1 year, 97 days	[11]
	Jo Haylen		Labor	Minns	28 March 2023	6 February 2025	1 year, 315 days
	John Graham				6 February 2025	incumbent	91 days

Former ministerial titles

Assistant ministers

The following individuals have been appointed as Assistant Ministers with responsibility for assisting or advising the Minister for Transport.

Ministerial title	Minister [9]	Party		Ministry	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Advisory Minister for Transport	Arthur Bridges		Liberal	Askin (1) (2)	13 May 1965	22 May 1968	3 years, 9 days	[12]
Assistant Minister for Transport	Terry Sheahan		Labor	Wran (3)	29 February 1980	2 October 1981	1 year, 216 days	[13]
Assistant Minister for Transport	John Akister		Labor	Unsworth	4 July 1986	21 March 1988	1 year, 261 days	[14]
	Janice Crosio				26 November 1987		116 days	[15]
	Tim Moore		Liberal	Greiner (1)	25 March 1988	18 September 1989	1 year, 177 days	[16]
	Matt Singleton		National		25 March 1988	24 January 1989	305 days	[17]
	Robert Webster				24 January 1989	24 July 1990	1 year, 181 days	[18]
	Bob Rowland Smith				18 September 1989	24 May 1991	1 year, 248 days	[19]
Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport	Wendy Machin		National	Fahey (3)	6 October 1993	4 April 1995	1 year, 180 days	[20]
Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport	Eric Roozendaal		Labor	Iemma (1)	26 October 2006	2 April 2007	158 days	[21]
Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport	David Borger		Labor	Rees	14 September 2009	4 December 2009	81 days	[22]
Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport and Roads				Keneally	8 December 2009	21 May 2010	164 days

Active Transport

Ministerial title	Minister [9]	Party		Ministry	Term start	Term end	Time in office	Notes
Minister for Active Transport	Rob Stokes		Liberal	Perrottet (2)	21 December 2021	28 March 2023	1 year, 97 days	[11]

See also

• New South Wales portal
• Politics portal
• Transport portal

• List of New South Wales government agencies

Notes

1. Concurrently Minister for Highways
2. Concurrently Minister for Highways until 19 October 1978.
3. Concurrently Minister for Roads from 26 May 1993.