Why the secrecy, premier? It’s got our attention

June 4, 2026 — 5:00am

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For a document that NSW Premier Chris Minns is yet to finish reading, his government is certainly going to the wall to keep secret the review into hate-speech laws by retired judge John Sackar.

If you have kept abreast of the political upheaval that has occupied NSW parliament over the past few weeks – ministers suspended from the upper house, accusations of “unholy alliances” – you will know the Sackar review is at the heart of a lot of it.

On Wednesday, Minns conceded he hadn’t read “the full document”, though he’d “had it explained” to him. The review had “informed” a bill that passed this week, increasing penalties for inciting violence against the LGBTQ community. But the review could also inform other “potential legislation”, Minns said, “and we’ve got every right to ruminate on that”.

It has been sitting on someone’s desk since November. Labor refuses to release it, claiming it is a cabinet document. The opposition and Greens say it isn’t. That stalemate is the reason Labor’s deputy leader in the upper house, John Graham, was suspended from parliament last week.

Whether it’s a cabinet document is certainly up for debate. The government commissioned the Sackar review last year in response to criticisms after it passed new hate-speech laws making it a crime to intentionally and publicly incite hatred because of race.

Second Labor minister suspended from NSW parliament over secrecy claims

The new laws – passed........

© The Sydney Morning Herald