By Matthew Knott and Olivia Ireland
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has refused to answer questions over whether he briefed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about an apparent antisemitic plot involving a caravan packed with explosives, as the Coalition demanded an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of the affair.
Kershaw appeared before a much-anticipated hearing of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement on Thursday but dodged questions about whether he informed Albanese about the caravan discovery before news of the plot broke in the media last week.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw declined to answer questions about whether he briefed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the caravan discovery. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The Coalition and the Greens accused the government and federal police of dodging scrutiny after the committee chair, Labor MP Helen Polley, rebuffed requests to extend the hearing and blocked efforts to grill Kershaw over the caravan issue.
Polley instructed MPs to limit their questioning to the AFP’s latest annual report, the stated topic of the hearing.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has said that state police told him in advance about the plot, but Albanese has refused to provide similar details about whether he was briefed about the discovery of a caravan in Sydney’s north-west packed with explosives and containing the name of a Sydney synagogue.
“I would say that that question relates to an ongoing Joint Counter Terrorism Team investigation and, according to the briefings I’ve received, that’s not the subject or purpose of today’s hearing,” Kershaw said in response to a direct question from Liberal National MP Llew O’Brien.
“And also, I am conscious that this is a public hearing and it’s not an appropriate forum for us to provide information relating to an ongoing investigation.”
Kershaw later declined to answer reporters’ questions about the matter.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge said it was outrageous that the hearing was closed after the allocated hour given “millions of Australians” were interested in finding out details about the prime minister’s knowledge of the plot.
“This was one of the worst examples of this government using its numbers to prevent basic transparency,” Shoebridge said.
“Both the Labor chair and the AFP did all they could to avoid giving an answer to the most basic question: when was the PM told about the incident?
“This is meant to be an AFP oversight committee, not a government-run exercise in political damage control.”
Opposition home affairs minister James Paterson said: “The federal police have cast no light on the ongoing mystery about when the prime minister was first told about a thwarted mass-casualty attack, but there’s nothing stopping Anthony Albanese from being upfront and honest.”
This masthead reported on Wednesday that, according to federal officials briefed on the matter, NSW police did not make clear to national agencies they had briefed NSW Premier Chris Minns the day after the caravan was discovered, leading to federal ministers being blindsided when it became public nine days later.
Dutton told reporters earlier in the day he had written to Albanese asking for an independent inquiry into the communications between security agencies, police and the government over the caravan discovery.
In a rare press conference with the Canberra press gallery, the leader of the opposition said it was inconceivable that Albanese did not know about the incident before it was made public.
“The prime minister keeps chopping and changing his position. That’s exactly why there needs to be an independent inquiry,” Dutton said, adding any inquiry needed to be made public, despite the risk of exposing security agencies.
“It should be made public … there should be transparency around [it] because it is without precedent,” he said.
“If there are elements that need to be redacted [or] if they need to be kept secret for national security reasons I’m sure that can be facilitated in the report.”
Dutton dismissed concerns that an inquiry may redirect police resources from investigating the caravan.
“I think to be honest, the prime minister has the questions to answer here,” Dutton said. “I don’t think there’s any breakdown in the process.”
Independent MP Dai Le said she wanted Albanese to be upfront about the matter, but said an investigation would be a waste of police resources.
Earlier on Thursday, Albanese clashed with Today presenter Karl Stefanovic on why he was not briefed about the caravan filled with explosives found in Sydney last week.
Stefanovic said he found it shocking that the prime minister was not alerted to the caravan discovery, saying, “You must have been absolutely livid that you weren’t notified.”
“You’re making an incredible assumption there, Karl,” Albanese said, before telling the presenter the Coalition has been irresponsible in politicising the issue. He then said he was focused on letting security agencies do their jobs rather than having an inquiry examine the communication between agencies and the Prime Minister’s Office.
“What’s important is tracking down the perpetrators of these crimes,” Albanese said.
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