Deputy Commissioner of the NSW Police and head of the Counter Terrorism & Special Tactics Command, David Hudson, has revealed in Budget Estimates Hearings that all arrests under the Strike Force Pearl investigations into antisemitic acts were likely part of a single criminal conspiracy and were motivated by personal gain rather than religious or racial hatred.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson said "The revelation that all of these arrests under Strike Force Pearl were connected to a single conspiracy, that was not motivated by anti-semitism, is frankly shocking,"
"A crime syndicate or individual has abused uneasiness in the community and goaded the NSW Government into whipping up community division over antisemitism. Premier Minns has swallowed this bait, hook, line and sinker,"
"I am grateful that this information has finally come to light, but I am furious that the community and the Parliament have been taken for a ride by Premier Chris Minns and his Government that has massively overreacted and jumped the gun with their knee jerk overreaching criminal laws,"
"When we debated laws that were supposed to be in response to rising antisemitism in NSW, the Government whipped everyone under the wrong assertions that they were necessary and urgent. We now have it confirmed that neither of those things was true, and that if we had held off on debate like the Parliament had wanted to, we would not have fallen for this hoax,"
"I expect that the Parliament will shortly be considering whether these unnecessary and reactive laws should be repealed, and so we should. Premier Chris Minns and the Minister for Police owe the public and the Parliament an explanation about how much they knew, when they knew it, and why they withheld that information from the community and decision makers," Ms Higginson said.
