3 months ago
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NSW Premier Chris Minns has ordered an investigation into how plans for neo-Nazis to rally on the steps of parliament were withheld from himself, MPs and staff despite being widely known by police, security and senior parliamentary figures.
The Department of Parliamentary Services usually notifies MPs of protests in front of the legislature, but that notification was not issued before 60 neo-Nazis gathered on Saturday morning despite parliamentary office holders being told as early as Thursday afternoon.
NSW Premier Chris Minns at a media conference on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
Minns and Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon have maintained they were not informed before the rally outside parliament’s Macquarie Street gates even though the group submitted a form one application, a notice of intention to hold a moving protest, with NSW Police on October 27.
Minns could not explain why information about the protest — known by senior NSW Police leaders, DPS Security, parliamentary presiding officers and his department’s own security in 52 Martin Place — was held so widely but not conveyed to MPs or his staff.
“They knew about it but didn’t share it with staff, members of parliament, public officials or bureaucrats, and they should have known, we should have known,” he said on Wednesday morning.
“I would suggest it was because it was on the weekend. The truth of the matter is, people work on the weekend and people come into the office on the weekend. So, a glaring oversight. It’s a reason, not an excuse, and one that we need to fix as soon as possible.”
The premier’s most senior bureaucrat, Simon Draper, was also unaware of the rally, Minns said, and would work on ways to strengthen communication between his office and parliament security.
Pressed on how NSW Police, parliament and his own department could have known about the rally without the premier becoming aware, Minns said: “I mean, you can accept my assurances or not. I don’t know what to tell you. We found out about it after the event had taken place and journalists contacted us.”
Legislative Assembly speaker Greg Piper told The Herald on Monday he knew ahead of time but was rebuffed after he asked for the protest to be relocated.
“It seemed quite evident to me that this should not go on outside the parliament, but we were told there was nothing that could be done,” Piper said.
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Legislative Council President Ben Franklin also confirmed his chief of staff received a group email from the manager of DPS Security on Thursday afternoon notifying his office of the planned rally.
On Tuesday evening, in response to questions from this masthead, a spokeswoman for DPS said: “The parliament’s security branch was notified by NSW Police in advance of Saturday’s planned rally, as it is with all protests approved by police in the vicinity of the parliamentary precinct.
“Responses and procedures were appropriately carried out to ensure the safety of those within the precinct.”
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Follow-up questions about why DPS did not notify MPs were not answered at the time of publication.
Minns would not countenance a theory outlined by Labor backbencher Stephen Lawrence in parliament on Tuesday. Lawrence had suggested the form one application, submitted by a group associated with the National Socialist Network, was largely unnecessary and a means of seeking a public legal confrontation in the Supreme Court.
“I couldn’t profess to know what’s going on in the minds of neo-Nazis,” Minns responded.
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