A second senior NSW government minister has been suspended from parliament as Premier Chris Minns’ government faces growing accusations of secrecy by a rebellious upper house.
John Graham, Labor’s deputy leader in the NSW Legislative Council, was on Thursday ejected from parliament over the government’s refusal to release a report by retired Supreme Court justice John Sackar, KC, into criminal law hate speech protections.
Graham is the second minister to be booted from the Legislative Council this week, after the party’s leader in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, was on Tuesday handed an unprecedented two-week suspension. That related to the government’s refusal to release documents relating to a decade-old sexual harassment allegation against former NSW Labor general-secretary Jamie Clements, which he denies.
Thursday’s suspension, which Graham labelled “punitive”, is part of a wider power struggle between the Minns government and opposition and crossbench MPs in the Legislative Council, who have attacked Labor over what they argue is its lack of transparency.
The government commissioned the Sackar report last May after introducing new racial vilification laws in response to escalating incidents of antisemitism in Sydney, including graffiti and firebombings.
Sackar, who previously led the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTQI hate crimes, was tasked with reviewing whether the laws should be widened to protect people against other forms of vilification. He handed over his report to Attorney-General Michael Daley on November 5.
But the government has since refused to release it, arguing it is a confidential cabinet document. It has refused to comply with attempts by parliament and through freedom of information to release it.
Graham said on Thursday the government would release the report, but that it was still under consideration by cabinet. Its release was “about the timing”, he said. He warned the upper house MPs its powers could be “at stake”.
“If taken too far they risk being challenged, or judged against in the court system,” he said. “That’s already happened.”
Opposition and crossbench MPs on Thursday backed a call by NSW Greens MP Amanda Cohn to boot Graham from parliament for one day over the government’s refusal to release the review. They may move to suspend him again when parliament resumes next week if Labor continues to refuse to release the report.
The move is part of a wider upper house rebellion over the Labor Party’s refusal to release documents, and a fight over its powers as the house of review. The fight over the Sackar review comes as the government is seeking to move additional changes to hate crime legislation through parliament, something multiple MPs pointed to.
Liberal Party MP Susan Carter said withholding the document while the legislation was before parliament was a “perversion” of cabinet in confidence.
“[The government is saying] ‘no you can’t have it to consider the legislation, but you know, we’ll give it to you when its no longer relevant’,” she said.
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