NSW hate-speech laws survive parliamentary scare as government lashes ‘secret agenda’ conspiracy

New hate-speech laws will survive crossbench repeal attempts with the NSW government savaging MPs who sought to peddle conspiracies of a ‘secret agenda’.

Premier Chris Minns defends his government’s new hate-speech and protest laws in NSW parliament on Tuesday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

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New NSW hate-speech laws will remain in place despite attacks from crossbenchers, with the state government savaging MPs who sought to peddle conspiracies of a “secret agenda” and were “blind” to a summer of rising hatred.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley, who in February introduced laws outlawing inciting racial hatred and protecting places of worship from protests, told parliament on Tuesday that Jewish leaders had feared a rabbi would have taken a “bullet” if ­action hadn’t been taken.

“There are (MPs) who were opposed to these laws, but are now fighting a rearguard action, using the caravan as a supposed ‘gotcha’ moment to suggest there’s a secret agenda,” Mr Daley said, after crossbenchers sought to repeal the laws in light of police believing criminal kingpin Sayet Erhan Akca co-ordinated the series of anti-Semitic attacks.

It comes after revelations last week that fugitive Akca allegedly orchestrated the attacks, including a “hoax” explosive-laden caravel in Dural in Sydney’s north­west, allegedly to use as a bartering tool to lessen mammoth drug charges against him.

“If there had been no caravan, I would have changed not one iota of that legislation,” Mr Daley said.

“These (MPs) are wilfully ignoring the reality that Sydney experienced a summer of deplorable anti-Semitic behaviour.”

The Australian on Friday revealed Akca’s trove of historical anti-Semitic Facebook posts, including conspiracies about the Holocaust and scores of comments glorifying the Nazi regime.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley in parliament on Tuesday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

On Tuesday, the opposition confirmed it would not support bids to repeal the laws, saying the Jewish community faced “un­precedented anti-Semitism”.

“(The laws) were passed in the middle of a crisis and there is still an anti-Semitism crisis,” Liberal leader Mark Speakman said.

The Coalition will back a possible upper house inquiry into when Premier Chris Minns was briefed by police about the caravan, which will probe that time­frame alongside when the legis­lation passed parliament.

Opposition police spokesman Paul Toole said that information was important, given the Premier’s “struggles” to convince Labor Left members of the need for stronger police powers, alleging that Mr Minns could have withheld the details to ensure a smooth ascension.

The NSW government introduced the laws prior to police confirming the caravan was a “hoax”.

Mr Minns, who said the new laws were “absolutely necessary” and would not be scaled back by even “one inch”, first raised the possibility of strengthening hate-speech provisions as early as last year.

Alleged ‘terror caravan’ mastermind Sayet Akca (right), who fled the country while on bail.

In the lower house, the Greens sought to repeal the protest-­related provisions, and on Wednesday the upper house will debate similar bills.

Without Coalition support, however, neither will pass.

Greens MLC Sue Higginson pointed to NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson’s comments last week that the attacks had been orchestrated to benefit the fugitive and his criminal group. “(He) made it clear that the legitimacy of the caravan, as a potential terrorist mass casualty threat, was suspected as a con job early in the investigation and that this information was communicated to (the) government before the introduction of the new laws,” said Ms Higginson, who has been critical of the protest provisions, citing civil liberties concerns.

The Palestinian Action Group, which organised weekly protests in the Sydney CBD, has launched a legal challenge at the NSW Supreme Court to deem the places of worship protest laws unconstitutional; the government is confident it won’t succeed.

Pro-Palestine protesters outside NSW parliament on Tuesday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Police arrested and charged 14 people last week with offences related to incidents being investigated under NSW police’s anti-Semitism probe.

Police allege Akca – who remains on the run and has not been charged – “pulled the strings” in an attempt to, particularly in relation to the Dural caravan, use information as a bargaining tool.

Akca was on bail in 2023 for an alleged 600kg drug importation but managed to escape via an ­Indonesia-bound boat before fleeing to the Middle East.

Australia’s envoy to combat anti-Semitism, Jillian Segal, has praised Mr Minns’s “clear-eyed” view on the issue and the Premier said repealing the laws would send a “toxic message”.

“There was a summer of ­racism in NSW, separate and aside from the police (caravan) operation,” he said, defending his describing the caravan as a possible “mass-casualty event” in February, saying information he had received then pointed to such a potentiality.