Sydney Dural caravan-anti hate inquiry to be referred to NSW parliamentary ethics committee
The NSW government will refer an inquiry into the relationship between the Dural caravan terror plot hoax and debate on controversial new anti-hate laws to an ethics committee amid fears parliamentary privilege could be infringed.
Emails tendered during the second hearing of the NSW Legislative Council inquiry on Thursday reveal NSW Premier Chris Minns wrote to Legislative Assembly Speaker Greg Piper on May 15 with concerns about the inquiry's terms of reference.
Mr Minns expressed concerns that the parliamentary privilege of the Legislative Assembly, where he spoke about the caravan on March 18, might be infringed as well as the 'observance of comity' between the two houses.
Mr Minns said the state government would introduce a motion 'at the earliest available opportunity' to refer the select committee's terms of reference to the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Privilege and Ethics for inquiry.
The revelations come after leading figures behind the scenes at the Premier's office and at the Legislative Council appeared before the inquiry to give evidence, including in relation to the earliest briefings Mr Minns received from police about the caravan.
The discovery of the explosive-laden caravan at Dural in Sydney's northwest was made public after it was leaked to the media on January 29, having been found earlier on January 19 by police, who Mr Minns later said had stopped 'a potential mass casualty event'.
It wasn't until March that the Australian Federal Police, working with NSW Police, revealed that it now alleged that the caravan, which included a note referencing Sydney Great Synagogue, was instead part of an elaborate criminal con job.
That revelation came after the NSW parliament passed a suite of new anti-hate and anti-protest laws in February that outlawed most protests outside places of worship among other measures and critics claimed were rammed through.
The inquiry was subsequently set up to investigate the relationship between the caravan and the proposed laws, including what Mr Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley knew and when and any reference to the van in briefings for the proposed laws.
The inquiry will also examine any statements made during debate of the proposed laws by members of the executive government, as well as the provision of information to parliament and the impact of any decision to withhold or release information.
Mr Piper wrote back to Mr Minns on May 16, noting that the motion would not be heard before Thursday's inquiry and it would be 'inappropriate' for the Assembly to accede requests from the Council for the witnesses to appear at the hearing.
That was 'without the House first having the opportunity to consider any implications for exclusive cognisance and other rights and privileges of the Legislative Assembly, arising from the notice of the motion of referral' to the ethics panel.
Informed of the correspondence, Legislative Council General Counsel deputy secretary Matt Richards wrote to the inquiry's chair, independent MLC Rod Roberts, on May 19 to say that the witnesses from the government would not be attending.
'In light of the Speaker's concerns, staff of the Premier's Department and The Cabinet Office would prefer that their appearance before the Committee be postponed until after these serious issues have been resolved by the parliament,' Mr Richards said.
'Accordingly, staff of the Premier's Department and The Cabinet Office do not propose to attend the hearing on May 22, 2025.
'On behalf of these staff, I respectfully request that the Committee refrain from pressing the invitation for them to appear before the Committee until there has been time for the matters referred to in the Speaker's letter to be addressed.'
Ultimately, Premier's Department secretary Simon Draper and deputy secretary Kate Meagher and The Cabinet Office secretary Kate Boyd did appear before the committee, with Nationals MLC Wes Fang tabling the email exchange.
Of the email from Mr Richards, Ms Boyd told the inquiry: 'I don't think we were seeking not to appear.
'I think the letter makes clear that we were happy to postpone or delay our appearance pending the resolution of these serious matters between the houses, so I think that's how I would paraphrase it.'
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