An inquiry is expected to probe the rushed legislation after a spate of anti-Semitic attacks it was designed to respond to were revealed as having been orchestrated by criminals to further their own interests.
Opposition and crossbench MPs are teaming up to establish public hearings in the NSW parliament to scrutinise the laws, that were rolled out by Premier Chris Minns in February.
They followed a series of public incidents, including an arson attack on a childcare centre near a Sydney synagogue, as well as the discovery of an explosives-laden caravan on the city's semi-rural outskirts purportedly linked to Jewish targets.
Federal police have disclosed the caravan was believed to be part of a "criminal con job" designed to secure favourable treatment for its mastermind.
All of the major anti-Semitic incidents probed by state investigators had been arranged by organised crime figures rather than ideologically motivated actors, they said.
But Mr Minns is defending the introduction of multiple laws following the crime spree, including controversial legislation to criminalise racial hate speech.
"I introduced those laws because there had been a summer of racism in NSW, separate and aside to the caravan out in Dural," he said on Tuesday.
Groups such as the NSW Council for Civil Liberties have slammed the laws as "anti-democratic", demanding they be immediately repealed.
They have also been condemned by unlikely political bedfellows, including Libertarian MP John Ruddick and the Greens' Sue Higginson, who have argued the government misled parliament.
"Parliament was misinformed by the Minns government about the urgency of the bills ... (and) about the allegedly anti-Semitic motives behind a spate of property damage ostensibly targeted at the Jewish community," Mr Ruddick told parliament on Tuesday.
"If the Minns government had not blocked an inquiry into the bills ... this parliament would have been more fully informed about the motivations of these violent incidents," he added.
The premier initially dubbed the fabricated bomb plot as a potential "mass casualty event" and a "terrorist act", despite police since revealing the find was the result of a criminal ploy.
Hate speech laws, introduced and passed within a matter of days, make it a criminal offence to intentionally incite racial hatred and carry a maximum penalty of up to two years in jail or fines of up to $11,000.
"The advocates for those changes need to explain what do they want people to have the right to say, what kind of racist abuse do they want to see or be able to lawfully see on the streets of Sydney," Mr Minns said.
"We will not be resigning from these laws, not one inch, because we think they're important for NSW."
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said he would not support calls to repeal the hate speech laws, but he would back a parliamentary inquiry "to ensure transparency and accountability".
"Both the premier and the (police minister) refused to disclose when they were briefed that the Dural caravan incident was a fake terrorism plot," he said, adding that the public deserved answers.
18°C