Chris Minns and NSW police minister should face inquiry over ‘fake terrorism plot' and antisemitic attacks, critics say
There are mounting calls for an inquiry into whether the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, and his police minister misled MPs and the public before controversial hate speech and religious worship bills were rushed through state parliament.
In February, NSW Labor passed a suite of reforms aimed at curbing antisemitism amid a spate of arson and graffiti attacks which culminated with an explosives-laden caravan being found on Sydney's outskirts. The government did not directly point to the caravan plot as the reason for the bill.
The most controversial changes were the government's push to criminalise people making racist remarks in public and giving police broad powers to restrict protests near places of worship. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
The laws covered a number of offences, including displaying a Nazi symbol on or near a synagogue and an aggravated offence for graffitiing a place of worship.
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'We have seen disgusting acts of racial hatred and antisemitism,' Minns said in early February. 'These are strong new laws and they need to be because these attacks have to stop.'
But this week, federal and NSW police said the caravan 'con job' and 14 other antisemitic incidents across the city over the past few months were orchestrated by organised crime figures for their benefit – and were not driven by antisemitic ideology.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties, with backing from the NSW Greens, called on Thursday for a legislative inquiry into whether the parliament and public were misled before the hate speech and places of worship bills were passed. Alternatively, they want the legislation repealed.
'The premier used highly politicised language such as 'terrorism' that knowingly strikes fear in the hearts of our community, especially the Jewish community. This fear was used as a basis for taking away essential democratic rights to protest,' the president of the council, Timothy Roberts, said.
'The premier clearly has been irresponsible in pushing for legislative change so quickly and not letting the police do their job.'
Roberts said the Minns government had 'played right into the hands of those who concocted the caravan plot in using it to drive a repressive and fear-based legislative agenda that has further divided the community'.
Minns initially called the caravan incident 'terrorism'. The premier and the police minister, Yasmin Catley – who said she had received daily briefings from police on the matters – this week refused to say when they learned it was not.
During a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday, the deputy NSW police commissioner, David Hudson, filled in some gaps. Hudson said the government was briefed that police were investigating whether the caravan could be a terror event or a criminal plot and did not 'categorically' declare it one or the other.
He said police ruled out it was a potential terror event on 21 February – the day the reforms passed parliament – and that Catley was told police had found it was a criminal plot last Friday ahead of the public announcement on Monday this week.
The Australian federal police deputy commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said on Monday it was 'never going to cause a mass casualty event' and was a 'fake terrorism plot'.
Independent MP Rod Roberts has alleged Minns and his cabinet were 'fully aware' of the fabricated terrorism plot prior to rushing the laws through parliament. Roberts said on Thursday he was 'open to the proposition' of an inquiry.
'I have grave concerns that the NSW parliament was misled,' he said.
'Had we not debated at 4am that evening [21 February] it wouldn't have come before the parliament until 18 March at the earliest by which time the true nature of the criminal con-job would've been exposed.
'It is incumbent on the premier to come clean and detail to the public when he first became aware that this was a hoax.'
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Greens MP and justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said her party supported calls for an inquiry.
'I am relieved this information has finally come to light, but I am furious that the community and the parliament have been taken for a ride by the premier, Chris Minns, and his government that has massively overreacted and jumped the gun with their knee-jerk overreaching criminal laws,' Higginson said.
The laws faced internal dissent from within Labor, with one MP calling the section of the laws giving police broad powers to restrict protests 'near' places of worship the most 'draconian' change to protest laws in decades.
Last year, a government-commissioned report recommended against making hate speech a criminal offence because terms such as 'hatred' introduce imprecision and subjectivity into the criminal law.
Minns said on Thursday he would not repeal the controversial laws, arguing NSW had seen hundreds of antisemitic attacks and incidents.
'This racial hatred has caused our Jewish community to live in fear in their own state,' he said.
'While the caravan was part of a criminal conspiracy – and not the plot of a terrorist organisation – it was still appalling racial hatred. It targeted the Jewish community. It targeted a racial group to instil terror in our state.'
The premier said: 'While these laws were drafted in response to horrifying antisemitism, we have always made clear they would apply to anyone, preying on any person, at any time.'
During budget estimates on Wednesday, Catley pointed out that the state's Jewish community had continued to face increased rates of antisemitism.
'From July 2023 until January 2025 there have been more than 700 antisemitic events and incidents and arrests in this city,' she said.
'[The legislation] was in relation to hate speech and hateful crimes that were occurring on our streets here in Sydney. That's what that relates to. It does not specifically relate to the caravan event. You cannot, at all, walk away from the fact that this was happening on our streets. The Jewish community were experiencing extraordinary fear.'
Hudson said on the day after the existence of the caravan was first reported that it could have been a 'setup' – given the caravan with the explosives and notes had been left on a public road.
The deputy commissioner told 2GB radio on 30 January: 'That's a consideration that we are looking at as well.' Hudson said it was 'not unusual' for criminal elements to tip off police but the caravan 'may have been recovered by the resident of Dural prior to that being able to occur'.
Comment was sought from Minns and Catley.
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