Crucial protest call Minister can’t recall

In the now highly criticised demonstration on October 8, attendees marched from the Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House, where some attendees chanting anti-Semitic slurs, lit flares and burnt the Israeli flag.

At the time the Opera House was lit up in blue and white as a tribute to the Jewish community following the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.

Internal emails between police also revealed senior officers on the day before, held concerns over how the lighting of the Opera House sails could lead to the “potential further escalation of current tensions in the Jewish Israeli communities”.

During budget estimates on Tuesday, Ms Catley faced another round of battering from the Coalition over the actions she took during the day, as police received information about the escalating situation.

While NSW Premier Chris Minns has said he had one call with the minister during the day, Ms Catley couldn’t recall who initiated the phone call, what they spoke about, or at what point it occurred.

“I don’t recall the conversation, (it would have been) about the protest in general” she said.

She said she was getting regular updates from NSW Police, as they conducted their risk assessments, and would have relayed their advice in her phone call with Mr Minns.

“I wouldn’t have given him (the Premier) advice because I would … have relayed the advice that I received,” she said.

Nationals MP Sarah Mitchell questioned her recollection of the events.

“How can you not recall? With respect, would say that this is probably one of the main incidents in your time as Police Minister that has put the eyes of the world on Sydney and the Opera House?” she said.

“What kind of relationship is there? Does he trust you to do your job?”

Ms Catley rejected Ms Mitchell’s line of questioning.

“I provided the information that was provided to me. I relayed that information,” she said.

“Both officers were in constant communication. I was in communication with the police … and the Premier’s office knew (that)”.

Ms Catley’s response to how the government handled the escalating protest also appeared to differ from the Premier’s.

Giving evidence to budget estimates in October, Mr Minns said he should have “in retrospect” not have allowed protesters to advance to the Opera House, and said he regretted the decision.

“We should have made the Opera House Forecourt in the immediate precinct an opportunity for the Jewish community to come together and if there were other protests in other parts of the city, then that should have been allowed to happen but well away from the community that wanted to come together and grieve.

“So I’m admitting that and the only thing I can do is, we apologise, and we want to learn from it.”

Instead Ms Catley said she regretted that the Jewish community wasn’t given a safe space to grieve, she didn’t go as far to say an operational mistake had been made.

“What’s always missing here is the police have a set of circumstances before them,” she said.

“They have to deploy their operational management to address what is before (them).”

Originally published as NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley says she can’t remember Opera House protest call with Premier