{"id":127982,"date":"2025-08-08T03:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127982\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T03:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:04:10","slug":"dissent-against-chris-minns-spills-into-nsw-parliament-as-labor-mp-accuses-party-of-gagging-debate-on-gaza-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127982\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissent against Chris Minns spills into NSW parliament as Labor MP accuses party of gagging debate on Gaza | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simmering tensions within New South Wales<\/a> Labor over the premier\u2019s handling of last weekend\u2019s protest against the killing in Gaza have erupted into the public domain, with a member of the left faction delivering a fiery speech in parliament, accusing his own party of trying to shut down debate on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Anthony D\u2019Adam, a former trade unionist, convener of Labor Friends of Palestine and a member of the upper house, used an adjournment debate on Thursday night to accuse Chris Minns<\/a> and the caucus of \u201cstultifying the internal culture of the party\u201d.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Adam said MPs\u2019 fear of losing their seats was behind a \u201crisk-averse culture\u201d in NSW Labor.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a number of backbenchers tried to raise their concerns in caucus<\/a> about Minn\u2019s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and his decision to oppose the weekend protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was attended by up to 300,000 people<\/a> in pouring rain.<\/p>\n

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D\u2019Adam said in his speech on Thursday that he was gagged and then bullied by caucus members. He now faces potential disciplinary action or possibly even expulsion from the Labor party<\/a> for publicly airing matters discussed in caucus.<\/p>\n

In May last year, Minns sacked D\u2019Adam from his role<\/a> as parliamentary secretary for youth justice, after he criticised the actions of state police officers towards pro-Palestinian protesters. At the time, Minns called D\u2019Adam\u2019s comments \u201cabsolutely reprehensible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking out publicly about caucus meetings and criticising the leader is extremely rare in Labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier this week in the Labor caucus, I sought to make pointed criticisms of the premier in respect to the issues of Palestine and protest,\u201d D\u2019Adam told parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meeting, I was howled down, abused [and] told I should resign from the Labor party. A motion was moved to gag me from speaking. In my entire time in the parliament, I have never witnessed such an event.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo apology has been received for the bullying behaviour I was forced to endure. It is deeply disturbing that the caucus appears incapable of entertaining dissenting views and took the step that it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Adam said the response \u201ccan only confirm in the minds of caucus members that it is best to keep quiet\u201d. He denied making a personal attack on Minns.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy critique of the premier was a political critique,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a critique of the government. It was not a personal attack on the premier as an individual but a criticism of his handling of a number of matters<\/a> relating to the issues of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Adam said that during the caucus debate, which Guardian Australia reported on Monday<\/a>, he could \u201csee the fear in the faces and hear it in the voices of my colleagues\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey were concerned that this type of conflict could cost them their seats or their ministries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is this fear that is driving a risk-averse culture in our party. But the challenges that we face as a society require bold government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solutions we require are full of political risk, the problems like war, climate catastrophe, dislocating technological change and the growing gulf of inequality are not going to be solved by whispered conversations in quiet corners of government. We have to be able to debate our differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premier said on Friday that Tuesday\u2019s caucus discussion was wrapped up because question time was about to start. He said he wouldn\u2019t have characterised the treatment of D\u2019Adam as bullying but said there had been \u201crobust debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long debate. Generally, the history of the Labor party shows we are better for it,\u201d Minns said.<\/p>\n

In his first two years as leader, Minns has run a tight ship with few internal problems within the party.<\/p>\n

But the conflict in Gaza and Minn\u2019s move to pass laws curtailing protests<\/a> have brought criticism from human rights groups and within his own party.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Adam told parliament that internal debate within Labor was crucial to \u201crecognise mistakes when they are made and provide a pathway for renewal and new directions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my experience has been that the party is increasingly centralised and authoritarian in its disposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThousandsThousands march across Sydney Harbour Bridge in one of biggest protests in city\u2019s history \u2013\u00a0video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simmering tensions within New South Wales Labor over the premier\u2019s handling of last weekend\u2019s protest against the killing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-127982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114990931252150032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}