‘Never heard of a more stupid idea’: Labor infighting erupts over ‘con job’ caravan

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has unleashed a blistering attack on one of her colleagues, who requested a briefing on when Premier Chris Minns was told that an explosives-laden caravan was part of a criminal con job and not a terror threat.

Catley said she “had never heard of a more stupid idea” after outspoken Labor MP Stephen Lawrence wrote to the chair of Labor’s caucus asking for a briefing following revelations that the caravan filled with explosives in Dural in Sydney’s north and 14 other antisemitic attacks across Sydney’s east were a “con job” set up by organised crime.

Yasmin Catley has launched a blistering attack on Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Crossbenchers are also questioning whether bolstered hate speech laws designed in the aftermath of several high-profile attacks on the Jewish community had been rushed through parliament under “false pretences”.

Concerns about the controversial laws sparked Lawrence’s call for information on when the government became aware the caravan discovery did not pose a genuine threat of terrorism. But the request was immediately slapped down by Catley, who said the idea of offering a briefing on an active and covert investigation into organised crime was “outlandish nonsense”.

“It may not be the stupidest idea I have ever heard, but if it isn’t, I really can’t remember what was,” she told this masthead. “It most certainly will not be happening.”

Independent MP Rod Roberts said he held “grave” concerns parliament may have been misled after legislation was urgently pushed through in late February on the proviso a series of antisemitic attacks demonstrated hate speech within the community was increasing, and new laws were imperative to curb it.

NSW Premier Chris Minns is under pressure to explain when he discovered the Dural caravan was a fabricated plot.Credit: Steven Siewert

Minns on Tuesday defended his stance on the caravan plot which he described as “terrorism” in the immediate aftermath of the caravan’s discovery on January 19, insisting the threat had to be taken seriously at the time.

In correspondence to the Labor caucus at noon on Tuesday, obtained by the Herald, Lawrence said he was struggling to articulate a “meaningful” response to “criticisms and requests for an explanation”, including from active members of civil society groups.

“I would be grateful for advice on when the government knew the Dural event was not a potential ‘mass casualty event’ and the rationale for how such information was managed,” Lawrence wrote to Labor caucus chair Charishma Kaliyanda and MPs.

“Noting the fear it generated in the community and the suggestions being made in the media that NSW Police knew or believed ‘within hours’ it was fake by criminals.”

Another Labor MP, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the revelations presented “significant issues” for the premier.

Discovery of the fresh details of the plot has enraged members of the Legislative Council, who sat until the early hours of February 21 after the government determined the third tranche of its hate-speech legislation needed to be rushed through in that sitting week.

It was apparent Minns and his cabinet may have been aware of the “fabricated terror plot” before the introduction and debate of the bills, Roberts claimed, noting debate should have occurred next week in which the “true nature of the criminal con job would’ve been exposed”.

“I have grave concerns that the NSW parliament was misled, in that we were not informed of the full circumstances surrounding the discovery of the explosives in the caravan,” he said.

“It is incumbent on the premier to come clean and detail to the public when he first became aware that this was a hoax, and why did he then continue to push through controversial legislation.”

Greens MP Sue Higginson, who accused the premier of trying to “morally bully” MPs during the legislation’s passage, said the “legitimacy and future of these unsound laws are now in serious question”.

“The rushed introduction of new criminal laws in February was a dreadful judgment call, and an unconscionable overreaction by Premier Chris Minns to a crisis that didn’t exist,” she said.

“The premier has whipped the community into a state of abject fear and division riding a populist wave of panic, that has caused further harm to the community and our democracy in the process.”

Libertarian MP John Ruddick said he would introduce legislation to remove the hate speech laws in the next sitting week, saying the state government had acted in a “knee-jerk manner” on the “false pretences of criminals”.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip said the fake terrorism plot should not be used to “diminish the summer of fear and anxiety” which the Jewish community lived through.

“In fact, this plot could only succeed by exploiting already-strained social cohesion and unprecedented levels of antisemitism in Sydney,” he said.

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