New South Wales Premier Chris Minns’ staffers are facing arrest after failing to front an inquiry into whether he “misled” parliament about a fake anti-Semitic terror plot in order to pass hate speech laws.
Mr Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley have both refused to appear before an upper house committee chaired by independent MP Rod Roberts examining the passing of the controversial Labor legislation, which the Premier rammed through parliament in February after lobbying from the Jewish community.
The laws were supported by the Opposition, and Liberal leader Mark Speakman then refused to help minor party MPs repeal them after a caravan full of explosives used by Mr Minns to justify the legislation was revealed to be a “criminal con job” by police.
Staff members from NSW Premier Chris Minns’ office have REFUSED to appear before the parliamentary inquiry examining legislation introduced in response to the Dural caravan hoax.
They’ve been granted a 30-minute grace period to present themselves before the committee. pic.twitter.com/JjEojRd2Sg
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) June 20, 2025
The committee, which does not have the authority to compel Mr Minns and Ms Catley to appear as they are members of the lower house, then summoned James Cullen, Edward Ovadia and Sarah Michael from Mr Minns’ office and Ross Neilson and Tilly South from Ms Catley’s, to give evidence on Friday.
When the five did not attend, Mr Roberts instructed NSW upper house president Ben Franklin, who was appointed by Mr Minns and is godfather to one of his children, to apply for arrest warrants from the Supreme Court.
One of Australia’s top barristers, Bret Walker SC, is rumoured to have been called in to help Mr Franklin avoid having the seek the warrants, but the Nationals MP also faces losing his $315,814/year role if he does not comply, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Earlier in the week the pro-censorship Premier criticised the committee for summoning his staff, accusing the upper house of “playing games” and trying to put off young people from considering a career in the NSW Government.
NSW Premier Chris Minns is frustrated that his staff have been summoned to appear before an ongoing inquiry into legislation introduced following the Dural caravan hoax.
He dismissed those behind the investigation—@RealMarkLatham, @JohnRuddick2, and Rod Roberts—as “conspiracy… pic.twitter.com/ewT0FKwLva
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) June 19, 2025
“This is all based on some kind of conspiracy theory that no one’s ever elaborated on, that the NSW Government has deliberately misled members of the Legislative Council,” he said.
“I want to draw you back to the day that we spoke about the Dural caravan criminal investigation, that wasn’t because we decided to go public with that investigation, it was because it was on the front page or the first page of The Daily Telegraph website.
“We were specifically criticised for that at the time. Wind forward six months, now, apparently, on the date that we spoke about the Dural caravan investigation, it was an alarming plot by me to frighten the people of NSW. Now you can’t say both things are right.”
Mr Minns, who has repeatedly said that he believes freedom of speech must be restricted to protect multiculturalism and maintain social cohesion, in January declared the caravan was “terrorism” and a “mass casualty event” despite police apparently already being aware that it was fabricated and presented no threat to the public, and the inquiry is looking into whether he or other senior government figures knew this but pushed the hate speech laws through anyway.
On Tuesday Mr Minns told 2GB the investigation was a “conspiracy based on the false claim that we knew everything from the beginning and used it to push through laws to counter anti-Semitism”, and accused the committee of “overreach” for using the threat of arrest to “intimidate” staffers into appearing.
NSW Premier Chris Minns says that new hate speech laws will be introduced soon because “we’re very proud of the country that’s been built up over decades of migration.” pic.twitter.com/mn9m4vQqn0
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) February 1, 2025
NSW Premier Chris Minns says that repealing ‘hate speech’ laws would send a toxic message to the community, and admits that we don’t have U.S.-style free speech because he wants to preserve multiculturalism. pic.twitter.com/KE9SCjjOIL
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) March 17, 2025
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties responded to the Premier’s comments by saying he should be “ashamed at his disregard for the health of our democracy here in NSW”.
“After acting so irresponsibly in passing these repressive laws – Minns will not, or cannot, defend them,” NSWCCL President Timothy Roberts said.
“After playing right into the hands of those who concocted the caravan plot and using it to rush a repressive and fear-based legislative agenda, Chris Minns will not, or cannot defend those laws before the parliamentary inquiry.
“It is appalling that the Premier and Police Minister have led the passing of laws criticised as being authoritarian, and then relied on executive power, liberties denied the rest of the citizens of NSW, in refusing to front up to a Parliamentary Inquiry that would otherwise assist in restoring community faith in our democratic processes.”
MLC @RealMarkLatham on antisemitism in NSW:
“The Minns Government claimed ‘antisemitism is rampant, spiraling out of control, and these laws are necessary.’
Yet the past 4 weeks since the Dural caravan hoax was exposed, nothing has happened. Has someone dusted Sydney with… pic.twitter.com/4G9PvXYo0w
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) March 20, 2025
The new laws, which criminalise “racist” speech in public and restrict protests near places of worship, were supported by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry but opposed by the Human Rights Law Centre and the NSW Bar Association.
The inquiry is supported by the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench MPs, and covers the period between when the caravan was discovered in Dural on January 19 and when the laws were passed on February 20.
Mr Minns and NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson spoke to the media on January 29 after the investigation was leaked, and while Mr Minns made his “terrorism” comments, Mr Hudson went on record just a day later saying that it could be a “set-up”.
In April Mr Hudson told the committee that at briefings with the Premier he had “expressed my suspicion over the motivation behind it from very early on” and that he thought the caravan was a “manipulation of the justice system”.
He also recalled briefing the Police Minister on January 21 after already having briefed Mr Minns.
Header image: Chris Minns meets with Jewish community leaders are one of the fake anti-Semitic attacks (Facebook).
The post NSW Premier under fire over fake terror plot-inspired hate speech laws first appeared on The Noticer.
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