In February NSW Premier Chris Minns passed controversial hate speech and places of worship laws. These laws criminalise racist remarks and give police broad powers to restrict protests near places of worship, carrying penalties of up to two years in jail. 

This legislation was introduced during a rise of antisemitic incidence, with a key event during this time being a police discovery of an explosives-laden caravan in Sydney’s outskirts which was labeled as a terrorism event by Minns. However, federal and NSW police have since revealed that the caravan plot was orchestrated by organised crime, not motivated by antisemitism. This has brought into question the actions of Premier Chris Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley in their use of fear-driven rhetoric based on this event to justify the rapid passage of these laws. 

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties, with backing from the NSW Greens, have called for a legislative inquiry into whether the parliament and public were misled before these new bills were passed.

“The premier used highly politicised language such as ‘terrorism’ that knowingly strikes fear in the hearts of our community, especially the Jewish community. This fear was used as a basis for taking away essential democratic rights to protest,” the president of the council, Timothy Roberts, said.

“The premier clearly has been irresponsible in pushing for legislative change so quickly and not letting the police do their job.”

Roberts said the Minns government had “played right into the hands of those who concocted the caravan plot in using it to drive a repressive and fear-based legislative agenda that has further divided the community”.

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