NSW Premier Chris Minns told 2GB Radio shock jock Ben Fordham on June 17 that he will not appear before the NSW Legislative Council (LC) inquiry established to ascertain how long he had known that an explosive-laden caravan, found on a Dural property, might be a setup, as NSW Police had said publicly in January.

Following this incident, NSW Labor passed new criminal offences, alleging they were necessary because of an “antisemitic crime wave”.

The Daily Telegraph this week ran a piece about how the inquiry chair Independent MLC Rod Roberts would be signing summonses, calling upon the Premier’s chief of staff and two deputies to testify at the inquiry. It described the laws which compel witnesses to address the inquiry or face arrest as “pretty draconian”.

But an LC inquiry cannot compel Legislative Assembly MPs to testify, which means Minns does not have to even though the first of the inquiry’s terms of reference relate to how much he, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley and Attorney General Michael Daley knew about police doubts that the caravan was a legitimate terror plot prior to passing the new laws.

Established on March 19, the Select Committee on the Relationship between the Dural Caravan Incident and the Passage of Relevant Bills through the Legislative Council found, during its first hearing on April 7 with senior police, that Minns had been briefed “very early on” that the caravan may be a set-up, yet he continued to suggest it could be a “mass casualty event” and “terrorism”.

The inquiry will look at whether Minns passed three hate crime and anti-protest bills, even though NSW Assistant Police Commissioner David Hudson had told him “very early on” that there were serious doubts about the truth of the caravan incident.

Fordham said Roberts would be signing the summonses requiring three of Minns’ senior staff to testify because the NSW Premier........

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