Overview

• Five senior staffers from Premier Chris Minns’ and Police Minister Yasmin Catley’s offices appeared before the parliamentary inquiry after initially refusing to attend and facing threats of arrest under the 124-year-old Parliamentary Evidence Act.
• James Cullen, the premier’s chief of staff, testified that he learned in late February the caravan bomb was no longer treated as a terror threat, but it remains unclear if that came before the hate speech bills were passed on February 21.
• The advisers argued their summonses were invalid and that the arrest powers under the century-old act were unconstitutional, a stance dismissed by Legislative Council president Benjamin Franklin following advice from senior counsel.
• Ross Neilson told the committee the anti-hate measures—criminalising racial vilification, banning protests near religious sites and increasing penalties for Nazi symbols—were conceived before the Dural caravan incident came to light.
• Premier Minns condemned the arrest warning as a “dangerous precedent,” asserting his government’s focus remains on serving New South Wales despite Parliament’s intense oversight clash.