Paul McLeay, the New South Wales Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources, has stepped down, after admitting to using a Parliamentary computer to visit gambling and adult websites.
According to a statement from Premier Kristina Keneally, she immediately accepted his offer to resign after he informed her of his misdemeanours.
“This behaviour is not the standard I expect of a Minister,” the Premier said.
“I have made clear to Mr McLeay that I expect Ministers to use the resources of office appropriately.
“Some people may choose to undertake similar activities in their personal lives, but I cannot condone the use of parliamentary resources by a Minister in this way.
“I am sorry that this situation has occurred.
“I will not condone it, and I will continue to make clear that I expect the highest integrity from Ministers.”
A replacement has not yet been named, but it will mean the state’s mining industry will have its fourth minister in less than a year.
Labor powerbroker Ian MacDonald was replaced with Peter Primrose as the Primary Industries Minister by then-Premier Nathan Rees in November last year.
However, MacDonald regained the position less than three weeks later, when he and fellow powerbrokers Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid staged a coup to replace Rees with Keneally.
MacDonald, dubbed ‘Sir Lunch-a-lot’ thanks to rumours of tax-payer funded lunches, quit Parliament in June, after it was revealed he had claimed a personal trip to Rome in 2008 under his Parliamentary travel expenses.
The Primary Industries portfolio was split into four new portfolios, with McLeay taking the Mineral and Forest Resources position.
McLeay, a former union official and public servant, was elected into the Sutherland Shire seat of Heathcote in March 2003.
He was also serving as the Minister for the Illawarra region and the Minister for Ports and Waterways.
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