NSW MP rebuffed by security after asking to relocate planned neo-Nazi protest away from parliament | New South Wales

A New South Wales spokesman said he was made aware of the neo-Nazi rally outside Parliament on Saturday the day before, but was told that a request to move the protest to the front of the building was not possible.

Greg Piper, Speaker of the House of the NSW Legislative Assembly, told Guardian Australia a member of his team advised him about the planned rally on Friday afternoon.

But the independent MP for Lake Macquarie said he had been told that his request to remove the protest from outside parliament, which was planned to be addressed to parliament’s internal security instead of the police, could not be facilitated.

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Piper’s revelation, First reported by Sydney Morning HeraldIt comes after NSW premier Chris Minns and police commissioner Mal Lanyon appeared before the media again on Monday but failed to answer questions about where responsibility lies for the decision to allow the rally to go ahead.

“It seemed pretty obvious to me that this shouldn’t have been done outside parliament, but we were told there was nothing that could be done,” Piper told the SMH.

“Most people would assume this would lead to prime ministership. If I knew, he should know too.” [So] To say this was a communication error would be an understatement. “This is a failure to adapt politically to the consequences of something like this.”

Lanyon blamed an “internal communication error” for allowing the Form 1 application for the protest to be approved by the local police district command.

Piper said his staff were first informed about the protest by the parliamentary security service itself. Asked whether the prime minister’s staff had received a similar warning, Minns’ office deferred to the prime minister’s earlier comments.

The Prime Minister told reporters on Monday that the decision to allow Saturday’s rally “obviously did not go to my office”.

He said the investigation into Saturday’s rally, as well as another investigation by the same group outside parliament in June, “will look at what kind of communication took place between the police and the prime minister’s office and the prime minister’s office.”

“I don’t know if an erroneous email in the communications refers to any of the rallies from the previous month. We’ll look into that more closely.”

The Prime Minister, police commissioner and police minister Yasmin Catley said they were unaware of the rally before it took place.

Piper said he asked for additional security personnel, including special constables, to be on site during the rally after being told his request to remove the protest could not be accommodated. “I just asked if they could make sure there were people around,” he said.

More than 60 members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network stood outside Macquarie Street on Saturday morning, carrying a large banner reading “Abolition of the Jewish Lobby”.

Piper said he viewed allowing the rally to continue as a “failure.”

“We are a democratic society. This group can reasonably demonstrate, protest like others… but I don’t think parliament should turn a blind eye to a hate group like this.”

“They were completely successful in what they set out to do,” he said.

“They took these photos with a very ugly message in front of the most important building representing democracy in NSW and Australia’s oldest public building.

“I look forward to discussing the matter further to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.