Latest news with #NSWInquiry
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Dural caravan inquiry committee explore arrest warrants for NSW staffers over failure to give evidence
Five New South Wales government staffers face possible arrest warrants after defying a summons and not appearing before an Upper House inquiry into the Sydney Dural caravan plot. The five staffers asked to be excused from Friday's hearing in a letter, after being summonsed to give evidence about what and when the state government knew about the plot, after the caravan was found laden with explosives in January amid a spate of antisemitic vandalism. The ABC understands the committee will go to the president of the Legislative Council Ben Franklin to ask if he could request arrest warrants in the NSW Supreme Court. NSW Premier Minns had flagged the staffers — some of who worked for him — would not give evidence on Thursday, calling the inquiry into what the state government did or did not know about the alleged plot a "star chamber". At the state parliament's Macquarie Room on Friday morning, committee members waited to see if the five staffers would turn up, with their empty chairs carefully labelled. Inquiry chair and independent MP Rod Roberts said he was disappointed the witnesses had not turned up, describing it as a "very serious matter" and saying further action will be considered. "I am disappointed in the government's continued efforts to hinder and frustrate the work of this committee and ultimately the role of the legislative council to scrutinise the actions of government." Mr Roberts concluded the hearing with a short statement about the intention behind the staffers being summonsed to appear. "This committee was established to determine whether members of parliament debated and passed hate speech and protest laws through parliament based on misleading or incomplete information." During the committee, Mr Roberts revealed a letter dated June 19 undersigned by staffers and asking to be excused from appearing was received on Thursday. In the letter, the staffers said their giving evidence before the select committee would "be at odds with the principles of ministerial accountability and comity between the House of Parliament". The letter also stated that a separate parliamentary inquiry could also consider the compulsion of ministerial staff to give evidence, suggesting it infringed parliamentary privileged "or otherwise offends principles of our Westminster system of government". The letter ends with the request to be excused from the hearing. Mr Roberts told the hearing he objected to the arguments made in the letter. "It is a fundamental role of the Upper House to hold the government of the day to account." Before concluding the hearing, Mr Roberts said the witnesses scheduled to appear had failed to comply with the summons. The committee is believed to be considering its next step.
News.com.au
13 hours ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Arrest warrants considered as Minns staffers skip explosives inquiry
The threat of arrest now hangs over five of NSW Premier Chris Minns' top advisers after they refused to front a parliamentary inquiry investigating a suspected terror plot. The five senior ministerial staffers failed to appear before a NSW parliamentary inquiry this morning, prompting the chair of the committee to flag 'further action' in what is fast becoming a major constitutional standoff over executive accountability. The Legislative Council inquiry, chaired by independent MLC Rod Roberts, commenced at 10.45am on Friday but was forced to adjourn for 30 minutes after none of the five summoned witnesses, senior advisers to Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley, arrived. The hearing was ultimately abandoned without a vote, after Chair Roberts formally acknowledged the no-show and delivered a lengthy statement criticising the government's ongoing resistance to the inquiry. 'I am disappointed in the government's continued efforts to hinder and frustrate the work of this committee, and ultimately, the role of the Legislative Council to scrutinise the actions of government,' Mr Roberts said. 'The committee will now consider further action in relation to these witnesses under section 7 through 9 of the Parliamentary Evidence Act 1901.' Those summoned included Mr Minns' chief of staff, James Cullen; two senior advisers from the Premier's office, Edward Ovadia and Sarah Michael; and two staffers from Minister Catley's office, Dr Tilly South and Ross Neilson. Their appearance was meant to shed light on who in government knew what, and when, regarding the discovery of an explosives-laden caravan in Sydney's northwest in January. The Premier had previously described the incident as a potential 'mass casualty event'. Although the Australian Federal Police later determined it was part of a criminal conspiracy. The circumstances surrounding the government's response, and whether MPs passed sweeping anti-hate laws in February based on incomplete information, remain under intense scrutiny. A letter sent to the committee chair on Thursday and signed by the five staffers outlined their refusal to appear. They argued that attending would breach 'the principles of ministerial accountability and comity between the Houses of Parliament,' particularly while a separate privileges inquiry by the Legislative Assembly is ongoing. The group also took aim at Mr Roberts' earlier media comments, writing: 'Given your comments on breakfast radio yesterday as to the motivation for issuing the summonses, – which make it clear we are 'proxies' because our respective Ministers cannot be compelled as witnesses to the Select Committee – we also consider that they have not been properly issued,' the letter read. 'In light of the above, we invite you not to press for our attendance at the hearing tomorrow.' Mr Roberts rejected those arguments in his closing statement, asserting the inquiry is properly constituted and that ministerial staff are not exempt from appearing. 'The inquiry seeks to examine the actions of the executive, not members of the Legislative Assembly,' he said. 'The committee is not seeking to sanction ministerial staff for their actions, only to shed lights on the events in the lead-up to the passage of the hate speech and protest laws through parliament. 'The power of committees to summon witnesses and compel them to attend and give evidence is in black and white in the Parliamentary Evidence Act. It is not in doubt.' Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig has previously condemned the inquiry as 'an incursion upon the privilege' of the Legislative Assembly. 'It expressly seeks to scrutinise the discourse of the House, the conduct of its members, be it backbencher or a member of the executive government, while undertaking the primary function entrusted upon them by their constituents which is to legislate,' Mr Hoenig said during Question Time in May. He argued the Legislative Council had overstepped its bounds by summoning ministerial staff and attempting to examine lower house proceedings. Despite the controversy, the Legislative Assembly passed a motion 47 to 27 to refer the inquiry's terms to the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Privilege and Ethics. In response, Mr Roberts amended the inquiry's terms to narrow its focus to the passage of relevant bills through the upper house. Mr Hoenig, however, insisted the changes 'did not go far enough'. Opposition MP Alister Henskens said the amendments were sufficient to avoid breaching privilege and labelled the referral motion 'a transparent attempt to frustrate and delay the upper house inquiry'. Greens MP Jenny Leong said it was 'critical' that the Legislative Council was not prevented from doing its work, warning that any 'unreasonable delay' would raise concerns about the Premier and executive trying to 'subvert' the inquiry. Speaker Greg Piper defended the committee's progression, saying the changes were not intended to obstruct but instead 'an opportunity to actually examine the issue, the rights and privilege, the exclusive cognisance of the Legislative Assembly'. The committee has previously heard from senior police officials, including NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and Deputy Commissioner David Hudson. With Friday's hearing abandoned and potential legal action looming, the inquiry is now at a crossroads.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Chris Minns blasts inquiry into Dural caravan plot as a 'giant conspiracy' as senior staffers are hit with arrest threat
NSW Premier Chris Minns has fiercely rebuffed calls for three of his senior staffers to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the Dural caravan plot. Independent Upper House MP and inquiry chair, Rod Roberts, will on Tuesday sign summonses urging Mr Minns' chief of staff James Cullen and his two deputies – Sarah Michael and Edward Ovadia - to give evidence, the Daily Telegraph reports. Should they refuse, the Upper House could instruct its president, Ben Franklin, to request that a Supreme Court judge issue arrest warrants. But the premier made it clear he and his staffers would not cooperate, dismissing the inquiry as nothing more than a partisan attack. 'This is a giant conspiracy being pushed by the Opposition, Greens, and Independents,' Minns told 2GB radio on Tuesday. 'It's a conspiracy based on the false claim that we knew everything from the beginning and used it to push through laws to counter antisemitism.' In February, NSW introduced tougher hate speech laws following a series of antisemitic incidents across Sydney. One of the main triggers was a reported terror plot involving antisemitic threats and a caravan in Dural, a claim that was later revealed to be a hoax. Roberts said the inquiry would examine whether parliament was 'morally bullied' into passing the laws without knowing the full facts. The showdown follows refusals by both Minns and NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley to appear before the inquiry. However, under parliamentary rules, Upper House inquiries cannot compel Lower House members such as Minns and Catley, to testify. Minns said Opposition and crossbench MPs had had opportunities to question him about the caravan plot during Question Time and biannual Upper House estimates. The premier said that claims he knew about the circumstances of the Dural caravan being a hoax from the very beginning were not true. He also denied claims that the incident was used to push through the anti-vilification laws passed earlier this year. 'My sense is that Mr Roberts made this outlandish conspiracy claim early on, and is trying to find some back fill evidence to justify it, and there is none there,' he said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Roberts for comment. NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman told this publication that the inquiry was simply trying to get to the bottom of what happened. 'This isn't about targeting staff but getting to the truth,' he said in a statement. 'If the Premier and Police Minister won't front up, the committee has a duty to ask those who might know the facts, as the former opposition have done when we were in government. 'Staffers aren't the decision makers, but they might hold key evidence. The Jewish community deserves answers and NSW deserves a government that's honest and accountable.' Liberterian MP John Ruddick, who is a member of the inquiry, told Daily Mail Australia that the cross party group was holding the government accountable. 'The modus operandi of governments is to whip up fear and then rush in more laws to curb freedom so they appear to have done something,' he said. 'This needed to be reviewed by the parliament because if we just swept this under the carpet they'll do it again. 'There must be accountability and the inquiry is doing just that.' In 2023, the NSW Upper House invoked the Parliamentary Evidence Act in an attempt to compel the brothers of then Premier Dominic Perrottet to give evidence to an inquiry regarding the Hills Shire Council, a move then backed by the Labor Party.
