Patrick Carl Scully (born 4 April 1957), is an Australian former politician. A member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

, he was a member of the

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, (definition of "The Legislature") is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wa ...

for Smithfield from 1990 to 2007. Scully served as a minister in the

New South Wales Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

before his forced resignation on 25 October 2006.

Background and early career

Scully was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and educated at state schools. He graduated in law from

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, Sydney, and was active in the Labor Party since 1976. He practised as a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

between 1983 and 1990.

Political career

Scully was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

as member for the safe Labor seat of Smithfield at the 1990 by-election. 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). Scully was considered a possible candidate to replace

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

, 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 Morris Iemma (; born 21 July 1961) is an Australian former politician who was the 40th Premier of New South Wales, serving from 3 August 2005 to 5 September 2008. From Sydney, Iemma attended the University of Sydney and the University of Techn ...

had majority support in the Labor Caucus. 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. Then, as police minister, it was revealed that he misled parliament over a report into the 2005 Cronulla riot, and as a result was ultimately asked to resign by the NSW Premier. Scully did not recontest Smithfield at the 2007 state election; and claimed he rejected an offer from Labor to contest a federal seat. In 2013, Scully testified that he was disappointed that

Eddie Obeid Edward Moses Obeid (born 25 October 1943) is a retired Australian politician and convicted criminal, who served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1991 and 2011, representing the Labor Party. He was the Minister for ...

, a powerbroker, had orchestrated Iemma becoming premier instead of Scully himself.

Post political career

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".Revealed: secret plan to blow up the Harbour Bridge
/ref> 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 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

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 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Carl 1957 births Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians Macquarie University alumni Australian solicitors Ministers for customer service and digital government Ministers for energy (New South Wales) Politicians from Sydney Lawyers from Sydney 20th-century Australian politicians