The New South Wales parliament will hold an upper house inquiry into “who knew what and when” about the caravan that was found laden with explosives on the outskirts of Sydney ahead of controversial legislation passing parliament.
The motion for the inquiry – which was moved by independent MP Rod Roberts and supported by the opposition, the Greens, and two members of the crossbench – passed on Wednesday.
It will see a select committee established to inquire and report “on the relationship between the Dural caravan incident and parliamentary debates on legislation”, but it will not examine whether the legislation should have passed or the laws should have been repealed.
Minns and his police minister, Yasmin Catley, have come under fire over when they knew of the police belief that a caravan found laden with explosives on the outskirts of Sydney was not a terror event but a “con job” by organised crime, and whether it was before hate speech and religious worship bills were rushed through state parliament.
Members of the crossbench had expressed concerns they may have been “misled” when the laws were introduced and later passed.
The laws, which were aimed at curbing antisemitism in the wake of a wave of antisemitic incidents over the summer, made it a criminal offence for people to make racist remarks in public. It also makes it an offence to hinder someone from entering or leaving a place or worship, and restricts protests near places of worship, regardless of if they’re directed at the place of worship or not.
The inquiry will examine what Minns, Catley, and the attorney general, Michael Daley, knew about the caravan plot from 19 January until 20 February, the day before the legislation passed. It will also inquire into briefings given by the NSW police and Australian federal police to the government before 20 February.
“Basically the bottom line is this ... It’s who knew what and when,” Roberts said.
Minns, who, along with others, labelled the event as terrorism the day news of the investigation was leaked to the media, has told reporters and parliament “we were briefed early on that this could be something other than terrorism as it’s classically defined, and that no line of inquiry was being ruled out by NSW police”.
Roberts told parliament after moving the motion: “Personally, I feel betrayed and used by Mr Minns and his government.”
“I voted for this legislation … because I believed the Jewish community did need support, and I voted for it on the belief that the government was putting it forward based on a real and imminent antisemitic threat to the community by bad actors.”
“No one, and particularly myself, is diminishing the threat of fear that the Jewish community held around about that time throughout this summer, their fear was real and it was palpable.”
In supporting the motion, Liberal MP Susan Carter, the shadow assistant minister for the attorney general, said: “The purpose of this inquiry is to find out and not just what information was provided to parliament, but what information may have been inappropriately withheld from the public.”
The Greens spokesperson for justice, Sue Higginson, expressed concern the legislation may have been passed under “false pretences”.
“We now know that very early in the police investigation, serious doubts were raised … while these doubts were known to the NSW police [and] the premier’s briefing notes were updated, parliament was not told.”
Labor MP Penny Sharpe said, in opposing the motion on behalf of the government, that there were MPs who had “sincere concerns” about the laws when they were debated last sitting week, but “they lost that argument, and they lost it for good reason”.
“We have had attempted arson. We have had fire bombings. We have had aggravated graffiti on people’s homes, businesses, place and places of worship.”
“We have had a summer that has been a shocker in terms of the concern that we should have for loss of community, harmony and rising antisemitism in our community, the action that the government has taken in relation to this has been important, and it has been needed.”
