Carl Scully

Patrick Carl Scully (born 4 April 1957), is a former Australian politician and minister in the New South Wales Government before his forced resignation on 25 October 2006.[1]

Carl Scully
Member of the New South Wales Parliament
for Smithfield
In office
23 June 1990 – 27 March 2007
Preceded byJanice Crosio
Succeeded byNinos Khoshaba
Personal details
Born
Patrick Carl Scully

(1957-04-04) 4 April 1957
Sydney, New South Wales
Political partyLabor
Spouse(s)Ann Leaf
Alma materMacquarie University

Background and early career

Scully was born in Sydney and educated at state schools. He graduated in law from Macquarie University, Sydney, and was active in the Labor Party since 1976. He practised as a solicitor between 1983 and 1990.[2]

Political career

Scully was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as member for the safe Labor seat of Smithfield at the 1990 by-election.[2] He is a member of the dominant right-wing faction of the New South Wales Labor Party.

Scully held the ministerial portfolios of small business and regional development (1995), state development (1995), public works and services (1995–97), roads and transport (1997–2003), housing (2003–05) and police (2005–06).[2]

Scully was considered a possible candidate to replace Bob Carr as Premier of New South Wales, and announced his intention to run for the position after Carr announced his resignation in July 2005. But he withdrew from the contest on 29 July when it became clear that health minister Morris Iemma had majority support in the Labor Caucus.[3] Although Scully publicly blamed the party machine for working against him, it was reported that some Labor MPs feared his record as transport minister during the Waterfall train disaster and other problems would have worked against the party at the next state election if he were leader.[4][5]

Iemma caved in to pressure from powerbroker Eddie Obeid and decided to sack Scully as police minister on 25 October 2006 after a bad public image resulting from the delay of the release of the Cronulla riots report.[6]

Scully did not recontest Smithfield at the 2007 state election;[7] and claimed he rejected an offer from Labor to contest a federal seat.[8] In 2013 Scully testified that he was disappointed that Eddie Obeid, a powerbroker, had orchestrated Iemma becoming premier instead of Scully.

In 2017, Scully released his autobiography titled Setting the Record Straight.

In response to Scully's autobiography, journalist Emma Jones wrote an article for The Australian, “Revealed: secret plan to blow up the Harbour Bridge".[9] In this article, Jones discusses how Scully's autobiography makes mention of a secret plan from World War II, which explained how best to blow up the Sydney Harbour Bridge during an invasion from the North. Scully used the secret plan during his time in government, to assist in protecting the Sydney Harbour Bridge from terrorism after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

References
  1. Clennell, Andrew; Braithwaite, David (25 October 2006). "Police minister resigns". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 October 2006.
  2. "The Hon. (Carl) Patrick Carl Scully (1957- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  3. Davies, Anne; Pearlman, Johnathan (30 July 2005). "Introducing your new premier". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  4. Goodsir, Darren; Clennell, Andrew (30 July 2005). "If only he had kept the trains on time". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 October 2006.
  5. Mitchell, Alex (6 November 2005). "How Carl fell from grace". The Sun-Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  6. Jean, Peter; Ralston, Nick (25 October 2006). "'Errors' force minister to quit". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 11 November 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2006.
  7. Mitchell, Alex (14 January 2007). "Scully quits politics after humiliating cabinet snub". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  8. Silmalis, Linda (14 January 2007). "Carl Scully: I quit". The Sunday Telegraph. Australia. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  9. Revealed: secret plan to blow up the Harbour Bridge
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Preceded by
Janice Crosio		 Member for Smithfield
1990 – 2007		 Succeeded by
Ninos Khoshaba
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