Premier refuses to rule out police boss candidate Mal Lanyon after NYE admission

NSW Premier Chris Minns says he will base the selection of police commissioner on a candidate’s entire career and would not rule front runner Mal Lanyon out of a job despite his admission that taking friends onto a police boat on New Year’s Eve was inappropriate.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley rejected claims that she did not support Lanyon, adding that the decision was still being made and should not be rushed. But the president of the powerful Police Association, Kevin Morton, urged Minns to hurry up.

He denied that Lanyon was the association’s preferred candidate, despite multiple police sources – on the condition of anonymity – insisting otherwise.

The Herald revealed on Wednesday that Lanyon had been investigated by the police watchdog for taking his wife and another couple on the police vessel OPV Nemesis while it was running an on-water command centre on New Year’s Eve 2023.

The deputy commissioner, who is on secondment to the Reconstruction Authority, said he was on the boat for professional reasons but admitted that he should have “thought more carefully about the appropriateness of inviting another couple to attend”.

Minns told Sky News on Thursday that he was not ruling anyone out of contention for the job. “I think the public would expect us to make a decision on someone’s entire career, not on one decision that they’ve made,” he said.

“We haven’t made a decision, the police minister and I, but we will take something to cabinet soon,” he said. “It’s a really important job for NSW, probably the most important job we’ll appoint in government.

“Mal not only as a deputy police commissioner but also as the Reconstruction Authority chair, he’s done a sterling job in those positions.”

The commissioner’s position is open after Karen Webb announced in May she would leave almost two years before her contract was due to finish. Her final official day is September 30, although she left police headquarters in June.

Lanyon has been on secondment to the authority, which helps communities recover from and prepare for natural disasters, since April last year. He was moved there – some say “exiled” – in an attempt to give Webb clear air amid constant chatter among officers and in the media about whether Lanyon should replace her.

Coalition sources have said he would have been appointed to the job when it was last vacant in late 2021, had it not been for an incident in Goulburn earlier that year when he was found lying drunk on a pavement and told ambulance officers to “f--- off” before calling their boss.

Lanyon’s supporters argued the Goulburn incident was historical and should not have any bearing on his future career.

Police sources, on the condition of anonymity, have long said Minns supported Lanyon as a candidate but Catley preferred alternatives.

When asked in parliament by Opposition Leader Mark Speakman if she was “actively working to thwart” Lanyon, she said she was not.

“We are going through a very robust process,” Catley said. “I’m not going to be rushed.”

Morton told 2GB on Thursday that the leaks should stop.

However, officers close to Webb said Morton did not intervene to stop the attacks against her.

When asked if he had spoken out against leaks during Webb’s tenure, a spokeswoman for the Police Association declined to answer.

The Police Association is a powerful union, partly because it has one of the highest sign-up rates in the NSW public service. Membership is seen as an insurance policy for officers; it funds their legal defence if there are work-related complaints or charges against them.

Its official position is that the commissioner should come from within the ranks of the NSW Police Force. However, multiple police sources, speaking anonymously so they could speak freely, said Webb did not have the association’s support, and Lanyon does. While the government said Webb’s departure was her choice, multiple sources said Minns encouraged her to leave.

The NSW ministerial diary disclosures for the first six months of this year show the Police Association met Minns four times and did not meet Catley once. A spokesperson for Catley said “the minister and her office speak with the Police Association regularly”.

Morton told 2GB he was expecting an “imminent” announcement from Minns.

Morton declined to criticise Lanyon’s decision to host his wife and another couple on an operational police boat for New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour in 2023, instead repeating Lanyon’s admission that he should’ve questioned the appropriateness of the move.

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