A senior government minister has come under fire for sending a young female tradie he met at an awards ceremony $500 in cash so that she could keep a strapless black dress.
Ron Hoenig made the bizarre boast in a speech at the Tamworth Local Government Conference last November, where he claimed it was one of the ‘great pleasures of being the minister for local government’.
The NSW local government minister and Leader of the House told council bureaucrats that earlier in the year, he had handed a Young Achiever’s Award to a female apprentice carpenter from Newcastle who was wearing a ‘black strapless dress’.
Mr Hoenig, 71, motioned to his chest with both hands as he described her outfit.
Two weeks later, he encountered the ‘articulate young lady’ – who Daily Mail can reveal is named Jazmin Webber – again at a depot for Newcastle apprentices.
‘…(she was) not in a black strapless dress but in fluoros and cargo work pants with paint all over them…looking completely different ,’ Mr Hoenig told the audience.
‘She takes me to the carpenter’s workshop to show me what she’s working on, and she said to me, ‘I was so honored to come to Parliament House to be given this award.
”I was so honored. I bought myself a black dress and black heels. It cost me $500 but I think I’m gonna have to sell the dress because I can’t afford to, I can’t afford to keep her.’
‘So when I got back to Sydney, I sent her a gift voucher for $500 so that she could keep the black dress and her heels.’
Mr Hoenig said the young carpenter wrote back to say thank you but that she spent the money on a grinder instead, which sparked laughter from the audience.
But Mr Hoenig’s cash gift has now come under scrutiny, with shadow youth justice minister Aileen MacDonald questioning whether it was ‘inappropriate’ at a recent Senate Estimates hearing.
‘Why did you focus on her appearance, describing her black strapless dress at Parliament House and then contrasted it with her work attire?’ Ms MacDonald asked.
Mr Hoenig said he had sent the $500 gift voucher ‘quietly’ and that he didn’t know whether she kept the dress after she bought the grinder.
‘Do you consider whether a personal gift of this nature from a senior male minister to a young female apprentice could be perceived as inappropriate?’, Ms MacDonald asked.
He denied that it would be and insisted he was just repeating what she had told him.
‘I didn’t actual recall what she wore when I presented her, one of many women, with an award . I quoted what she said to me when I met her in the depot,’ Mr Hoenig said.
The Labor stalwart became increasingly flustered and described the line of questioning as ‘ridiculous’.
‘I sent a girl $500 as an apprentice so she can keep her dress and quoted what she said to me,’ he said.
‘I thought it was a nice touch.’
He later noted that the $500 came from his own money.
‘I think it’s fabulous that young women are apprentices in traditional male roles,’ Mr Hoenig said.
He further described Ms Webber as a ‘role model for young women’.
Mr Hoenig’s office was approached for further comment.
The Heffron MP in Sydney’s south has also been criticised over the choice of music in some of his TikTok videos.
In one video, which appears to now have been deleted, he celebrated Ms Webber’s award on a visit to her Newcastle depot.
The accompanying song, by rapper Kehlani, features the lyrics ‘I like the way your body is, is that too obvious?’.
Another video of a trip to a construction site is overlaid with a song containing the lyrics ‘Hey, little mama with that tight dress on, I’ve got a small proposition for you … You look kinda sexy, got it going on … here’s what I want you to do.’
The song lyrics have sparked such outrage that a motion has been submitted about it to be discussed at Bayside Council on Wednesday night.
The motion submitted by councillor Fiona Douskou who’s also running as the federal Liberal candidate for Barton, alleges the videos are ‘demeaning to women’.
‘That Council, given Minister Hoenig’s seniority in local government and NSW government, calls for the Minister to use more appropriate background music when promoting women in local government,’ the motion stated.
Daily Mail approached Ms Webber for comment.