Probe into funding for Islamic groups who defended Bankstown nurses blocked by Minns govt: parliament

The Minns Government has blocked moves to investigate the funding of Muslim groups behind a controversial communique supporting two Bankstown nurses who claimed to have killed Israeli patients.

The Minns Government has blocked moves to investigate the funding of Muslim groups behind a controversial communique supporting two Bankstown nurses who claimed to have killed Israeli patients.

Liberal MP Jacqui Munro called in parliament on treasurer Daniel Mookhey to examine the funding behind the groups who signed the communique, which she said included mainstream bodies and hard line group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The communique said reaction to nurses Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh vowing to kill Israeli patients was “manufactured” and “co-ordinated outrage” aimed at silencing Palestinian voices.

“This grouping of organisations and individuals, which includes organisations like Muslim Votes Matter and the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, released a statement which calls the community outrage and the comments around the disgraced former nurses’ behaviour disproportionate,” Ms Munro told parliament.

In the late night motion Mr Mookhey said any suggestion that Health Minister Ryan Park had “engaged in selective outrage” over the incident and sought to politicise it was “a slur”.

Liberal MP Jacqui Munro. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Mr Mookhey said: “None of the signatories to that statement is in receipt of any funding from NSW Health.”

But he said he was “not in a position” to provide information on whether any of the groups had received government grants and could not say when he would be able to do so.

“People would appreciate that we spend $120 billion on the operating side of the budget,” he said, while rejecting the move to have the taxpayer funding investigated.

Ms Munro told parliament it was the treasurer’s job to know exactly who was receiving taxpayer funded grants.

Daniel Mookhey, Treasurer of NSW. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“It is the Government’s fundamental responsibility to understand where the money is going,” she said.

“The Government cannot use the excuse that it does not currently know where the money is going and therefore should not investigate where the money is going.”

The signatories to the letter condemning “the hypocrisy over nurses controversy” included mainstream bodies including the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and other groups including the Al Madina Dawah Centre and its founder Wissam Haddad.

Ms Munro said the signatories to the communique “fail to reflect the reality of Australia’s most cohesive multicultural society” and that any cash going to them should be investigated.

She acknowledged that the Government had rejected the statement by the more than 50 organisations and individuals but said that was not enough.

“If the statement is so roundly rejected by the Government, why should organisations that do not meet the expectations of the public’s values and our taxation dollars still be on the payroll?” she said.

Ms Munro vowed to pursue the funding details of the signatories during the upcoming Budget Estimates.

Originally published as Probe into funding for Islamic groups who defended Bankstown nurses blocked by Minns govt: parliament