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Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon has firmed as frontrunner for the NSW Police Force’s top job after Premier Chris Minns said he’s willing to overlook “bad decisions” and that the NSW police commissioner did not need to have a “lily-white record”.
But an expert involved in the Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Force, which began 30 years ago and found systemic and entrenched corruption, disagreed, saying the state’s top police officer needed to meet the highest ethical standards.
Premier Chris Minns with likely police commissioner Mal Lanyon, right, at a press conference about Cyclone Alfred in March 2025.Credit: Kate Geraghty
The Herald revealed on Wednesday that Lanyon had been investigated by the police watchdog for taking his wife and another couple on the police vessel OPV Nemesis while it was running an on-water command centre on New Year’s Eve 2023.
On Thursday, Minns said one bad decision should not derail a person’s whole career, but did not mention another incident that cost Lanyon the top job in 2021, when he was found lying drunk on a footpath in Goulburn and told attending ambulance officers to “f--- off”, before calling the chief executive of Ambulance NSW.
In response to questions from this masthead on Friday, Minns gave the strongest indication so far that Lanyon would get the job. While he “hadn’t made a decision” he refused to rule him out of the job.
“People do make decisions; sometimes they are bad decisions, me included. There’s not too many perfect people out there,” said Minns. “If we’re only picking people who have got completely, completely lily-white records then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life.”
Lanyon and outgoing commissioner Karen Webb, who finishes up on September 30.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The job is vacant after Karen Webb resigned with almost two years to run on her five-year contract; she was the first top police officer since the royal commission to have her tenure cut short. While she said it was her decision, multiple police and political sources said Minns encouraged her to go.
Webb’s tenure was dogged by criticism of her public performance and leaks against her from within the police.
Minns refused to say when the new commissioner – one of the most powerful public service jobs in the state – would be announced. When asked if it would be next week he said, “maybe”, and that he was confident he was getting to the end of the decision process.
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“We haven’t made a call in relation to this job. It’s one of the biggest steps we will make; I think most people would expect us to [decide] based on the totality of someone’s career,” he said.
The Wood Royal Commission into corruption in the NSW Police Force began 30 years ago this year. Despite then-commissioner Tony Lauer’s insistence that corruption was not entrenched, the inquiry found significant evidence of systemic and entrenched corruption.
Emeritus Professor David Dixon researched police culture on behalf of the commission. While refusing to comment on specific candidates or the contest for the top job, he said the royal commission should not be forgotten by NSW.
“There has to be constant vigilance,” he said.
“[It] made many recommendations which have not been carried out. In that circumstance then you’d be wanting to look for a person who’s got the highest leadership skills and potential [to be the commissioner], and that surely has to include demonstrated high ethical standards.
“It’s a job where there are always pressures not to do the right thing.”
Lanyon has been on secondment to the Reconstruction Authority since April last year but remains a deputy commissioner of police.
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