Premier refuses to rule out police boss candidate Mal Lanyon after NYE admission

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NSW Premier Chris Minns says he will base the selection of police commissioner on a candidate’s entire career and would not rule frontrunner Mal Lanyon out of a job despite his admission that taking friends onto a police boat on New Year’s Eve was inappropriate.

NSW Police Association president Kevin Morton urged Minns to hurry up with the appointment, noting the force has been waiting 134 days since outgoing commissioner, Karen Webb, stopped actively performing the role.

Mal Lanyon took his wife and another couple on board the police boat Nemesis for 2023 New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour.

Morton said he understood candidates had been informed of the decision, but a government spokesperson said no decision had been made.

As pressure mounts on Minns to make an announcement, the Herald revealed on Wednesday that Lanyon had been investigated by the police watchdog for taking his wife and another couple on the OPV Nemesis while it was running an on-water command centre on New Year’s Eve 2023.

Lanyon said he was on the boat for professional reasons but admitted that he should have “thought more carefully about the appropriateness of inviting another couple to attend”.

The deputy commissioner – who has been on secondment to the Reconstruction Authority, a body that helps communities recover from and prepare for natural disasters, since April last year – is widely considered the frontrunner for the job.

Coalition sources have said he would have got the job last time, if it had not been for an incident in Goulburn in early 2021 when he was found lying drunk on a pavement, and told ambulance officers to “f--- off” before calling their boss.

Lanyon’s supporters argued the Goulburn incident was historic and should not have any bearing on his future career.

Minns told Sky News on Thursday that he was not ruling anyone out of contention for the job.

“I think the public would expect us to make a decision on someone’s entire career, not on one decision that they’ve made,” he said.

“We’re not ruling anyone out of contention for the police commissioner’s job. We haven’t made a decision, the police minister and I, but we will take something to cabinet soon. It’s a really important job for NSW, probably the most important job we’ll appoint in government.

“Mal not only as a deputy police commissioner but also as the Reconstruction Authority chair, he’s done a sterling job in those positions.”

The commissioner’s position is open after Webb announced she would leave almost two years before her contract was due to finish. Webb’s tenure has been marred by damaging leaks against her and criticism of her timid performance in front of the cameras.

Webb’s final official day is on September 30.

On 2GB radio on Thursday morning, Morton said the leaking needed to stop.

“It’s embarrassing when members of the public are reading this in the media and challenging you about the drama that is the hierarchy of the NSW Police Force, I think we just need to stop this from occurring,” Morton said.

“Give them all a fair go, and let’s get the best candidate at the end of the day.”

Morton was expecting an “imminent” announcement from Minns on an appointment.

He declined to criticise Lanyon’s decision to host his wife and another couple on an operational police boat for New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour in 2023, instead repeating Lanyon’s admission that he should’ve questioned the appropriateness of the move.

Morton also denied that the police association had a preferred candidate, but multiple police sources – on the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely – said the association was backing Lanyon.

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