NSW Premier Chris Minns staffers facing potential arrests after skipping major inquiry into Dural explosives
Three of New South Wales Premier Chris Minns staffers could potentially be arrested after they failed to show up to a major inquiry into a 'fabricated terrorist plot' on the outskirts of Sydney.
On Friday, five NSW government staffers, including three senior staff members of the Premier, snubbed a hearing of an inquiry looking into an incident in January when explosives were found in a caravan in Dural.
Chair of the inquiry Rod Roberts expressed disappointment when the five staffers, who had been summoned to attend, failed to appear.
'The committee will now consider further action in relation to these witnesses,' Mr Roberts said on Friday, according to The Daily Telegraph.
'The committee seeks to question ministerial staff about who was present at the briefings held by the NSW Police, what was discussed and what records were kept', Mr Roberts said regarding the Dural caravan incident, the masthead reported.
According to the NSW Parliamentary Evidence Act, any person who is not a member of the Legislative Council or Assembly can be summoned to attend and provide evidence at parliamentary hearings.
Failure to attend without reasonable excuse can result in a certificate being sent to a judge of the Supreme Court, who has the power to then issue a warrant for the person's arrest.
Mr Minns previously confirmed he is refusing to appear at the Dural caravan inquiry himself, citing time constraints and his lack of availability to attend such hearings.
The Premier claimed the inquiry is a 'giant conspiracy' when he spoke to 2GB Sydney radio host Ben Fordham on Tuesday morning.
'It rests on the premise that the Dural caravan case was not a threat to the community... that we knew about the circumstances relating to the case from the very beginning, which is not true,' Mr Minns told the radio host.
'And lastly, that we used that circumstance to push through vilification laws to prevent antisemitism or try and confront antisemitism in the community. It's a giant conspiracy.'
The inquiry comes months after a caravan with explosives, which was initially feared to trigger a mass casualty event, was discovered in Sydney's northwest on January 19.
Australian Federal Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett told media in January that investigators 'almost immediately' realised the explosives were part of a 'fabricated terrorist plot'.
'I can reveal the caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit,' the Deputy Commissioner said.
Public Service Association (PSA) general secretary Stewart Little has chimed in on the hearing snub controversy, blasting the NSW upper house over the investigation.
"Our members shouldn't be pawns in parliamentary parlour games with upper house MPs posturing to get media coverage," Mr Little said in a statement on Thursday.
"If upper house MPs want to know the facts they need to concentrate on getting the Premier to appear before them, or the relevant Ministers.'
Mr Little criticised the move to summon the staffers to the inquiry, calling it 'the pits'.
'... Drag in ministers or the senior departmental heads by all means, but junior public servants and parliamentary staffers have no bearing or consequence or meaning on the political process,' the general secretary said.
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Mr Roberts said the president was non-committal when asked to go to the Supreme Court for the warrants, but Mr Franklin had a "very important and very crucial decision". "All along, Labor has tried to stonewall, delay and ridicule this important inquiry," fellow committee member John Ruddick said on social media. Agreeing to pursue the warrants could come with a personal awkwardness for Mr Franklin, given he is the godfather of the premier's second child. Arrest warrants can be issued to force a witness to attend an inquiry while witnesses who refuse to answer questions can face jail time. NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the failure of Mr Minns' staff to appear at the probe into controversial protest and hate speech legislation indicated the premier might have breached corruption rules. "If the premier has given a direction to staff to disobey a lawful requirement to appear, that would appear to be a breach of the ministerial code," he said. The protest and speech laws were rushed through the NSW parliament in February after explosives, anti-Semitic messaging and a list of addresses of Jewish people and institutions were found inside the caravan at Dural in Sydney's northwest on January 19. The discovery prompted fears of a terrorist attack or mass-casualty event, as the premier and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese immediately dubbed it. It later emerged it was a hoax, with senior NSW police telling Mr Roberts' inquiry they believed virtually from the outset it was a ruse. In a letter to the committee announcing their intention not to attend, the staffers say appearing before the inquiry "would be at odds with the principles of ministerial accountability". Mr Roberts pressed against that motion on Friday as he addressed empty chairs. "The committee is not seeking to sanction ministerial staff for their actions, only to shed light on the events in the lead up to the passage of the hate speech and protest laws through parliament," Mr Roberts said. Mr Minns attacked the upper house on Thursday for trying to get government staff to appear at inquiries "on a routine basis" - "almost like they're criminals and under investigation, or they should front some kind of Star Chamber inquiry". "And if not, they're under threat of arrest," he said. As members of the lower house, Mr Minns and Ms Catley cannot be compelled to appear at the upper house inquiry to give evidence. But staffers can be forced to appear. Another staffer named in the motion, Mr Minns' deputy chief of staff Edward Ovadia, said in the letter he should be excused from attending the committee because he was on leave at the time and did not attend meetings. The premier and police minister say they have commented extensively on the matter, including at parliamentary hearings and press conferences and during question time.
