Staff front 'kangaroo court' probe after arrest threat
Senior government staff have faced terse questions over the passage of anti-protest and hate speech laws after threats they could be arrested for refusing to front an inquiry.
NSW Premier Chris Minns' chief of staff James Cullen, his deputies and two senior staff for Police Minister Yasmin Catley showed up on Friday after being summoned to appear earlier in June.
The parliamentary inquiry is probing the swift introduction of laws in February after the discovery of a caravan at Dural, on Sydney's outskirts, containing explosives and a list of Jewish sites.
Mr Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese initially labelled the caravan incident a thwarted terror attack in late January when a media leak disclosed the earlier caravan find.
But inquiry chair Rod Roberts on Friday criticised the terrorism label, saying it would have led to fear and consternation in the community.
"I can't see how the premier standing in front of a press conference saying there is no other alternative to terrorism provided any calm to anybody," the independent MP said.
It later emerged the caravan was thought to be part of what investigators labelled a "criminal con job" that was staged in an attempt to gain leverage with police.
Senior NSW police told the inquiry in April they believed it was a ruse virtually from the outset.
Controversial laws that passed parliament included curbs on the right to demonstrate near places of worship.
But Mr Cullen, appearing frustrated and occasionally interrupting questions, repeatedly defended the premier's language about the caravan find.
"This was not a line dreamt up by the premier," he told the committee inquiry in a tense exchange with Mr Roberts.
"It was not a term thrown around lightly at all.
"There's a very convenient rewriting of history and squashing of time and concepts."
The three pieces of legislation were drafted during a 12-18 month period when there was a marked rise in anti-Semitic incidents, Mr Cullen said.
"The relationship that's been constructed by some between the Dural caravan event and those three pieces of legislation is extremely ... unfair."
They included graffiti and arson attacks on a synagogue, a preschool's fire-bombing and other incidents in areas with large Jewish populations, all of which had drawn widespread condemnation, he said.
Mr Minns - who, along with the police minister, cannot be compelled to appear before the upper house - told reporters his perspective had been "well ventilated".
Following news the staffers could face arrest, Mr Minns on Wednesday said they had been summoned to an inquiry that was "close to a kangaroo court".
Mr Roberts had addressed five empty chairs a week earlier when the government staffers did not appear, prompting the drastic but legal step of threatening to arrest them.
Mr Minns criticised parliamentary "shenanigans" on Friday and said his focus was on supporting the people of NSW.
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