NSW Government ignores parliamentary order to release Sackar review
The Minns Labor government has failed to produce its highly anticipated review into criminal law hate speech protections for vulnerable communities, despite the Greens successful motion ordering its release in the NSW Legislative Council two weeks ago.
The order for papers under standing order 52 compels the government to release the documents, but the April 1st deadline has been ignored under the guise of ‘cabinet in confidence’.
Greens LGBTQIA+ spokesperson Dr Amanda Cohn said the failure to produce the Sackar Review was a blow to LGBTQIA+ and other marginalised communities.
“While we are considering further changes to hate crime laws in Parliament, it’s troubling that the NSW Government refuses to share an independent review it commissioned into the very issues we are debating,” Dr Cohn said.
“A cynic might wonder whether the findings don’t align with the government’s approach.”
On the 24th and 26th of March, the leader of the government in the Legislative Council, Penny Sharpe MLC, was suspended after being found to be in contempt of the House for failure to comply with a similar order for production of documents.
“We are seeing a pattern of the Minns Labor Government obstructing access to information and undermining parliamentary processes.”
In May last year, Attorney General Michael Daley appointed former NSW Supreme Court Justice, the Honourable John Sackar AM KC, to conduct the review. It was handed to the government in November.
“Some of our eminent legal minds have previously argued that reports prepared for the assistance of cabinet, as opposed to documents which disclose the actual deliberations within cabinet, should be able to be produced.”
“It’s galling that the Minns Labor government is resorting to procedural trickery to continue to bury this review that so profoundly impacts LGBTQIA+ and other groups subjected to hatred”
“The government doesn’t get to decide whether or not to comply with an order of the Parliament on behalf of the communities that we represent. I will use the full powers of the Legislative Council to challenge them when Parliament resumes.”