NSW Jewish Board of Deputies slams calls for parliamentary inquiry into Dural caravan incident

A leading Jewish organisation has defended hate speech laws pushed through parliament in late February, and attacked a push for a parliamentary inquiry into the Dural caravan incident.

A leading Jewish organisation has slammed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the Minns government’s handling of the Dural caravan incident, claiming the review will provide a platform to “gaslight” the Jewish community.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip defended the hate speech laws pushed through parliament on February 21 as pressure mounts to repeal the legislation.

Mr Ossip said it was “difficult to understand” what the inquiry would achieve while an active police investigation was underway into the incident – which did not change the terror felt by the Jewish community during months of rolling anti-Semitic attacks.

“An inquiry at this stage would merely provide a platform for hostile actors like the Greens party – which has itself been tainted by anti-Semitism – to gaslight and diminish the seriousness of what the Jewish community has had to deal with in recent months,” Mr Ossip said.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip slammed calls for an inquiry. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The property at Dural in Sydney where the caravan containing explosives was relocated to before the discovery. Photo Jeremy Piper

“The suggestion that these laws were based on just one incident – the caravan plot – is incorrect.”

But Opposition Leader Mark Speakman backed the parliamentary inquiry, saying NSW Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley had to “come clean” about why they caused additional stress for the Jewish community.

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman backed an inquiry limited to the Dural caravan incident. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“They need to tell the general public and the Jewish community exactly what they knew and when,” Mr Speakman said.

“The Jewish community has faced enough stress, enough pain, enough anguish in recent months without that being added to by the fear there was a plot of a mass terrorist attack.”

Mr Speakman said he would not support the law repeal and would only endorse an inquiry limited to the Dural caravan incident, to prevent “a wider-ranging trawl or gaslighting by the Greens”.

“NSW parliament needs the inquiry because Labor can’t be trusted to tell the truth,” he said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has remained steadfast in his defence of the laws – and his refusal to repeal them – throughout the storm surrounding the Dural caravan “terror” plot.

It comes after NSW Police revealed during budget estimates they “disproved” the incident was valid terrorism on February 21. The caravan was first discovered on January 19, but the public was not made aware it was a “criminal con-job” until last week.

Attorney-General Michael Daley proposed the laws and said the caravan plot did not have any effect on their content, which included maximum sentences of up to two years for inciting racial hatred.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has defended the laws and his handling of the Dural caravan incident. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

“I can tell everyone listening in this most public of places that had there been no caravan, I would have changed not one iota of that legislation,” Mr Daley said.

“Anyone who wants to challenge me on that has no evidence to support it..,and is ignoring the reality that Sydney experienced a summer of absolutely deplorable anti-Semitic behaviour.”