Patrick Carl Scully (born 4 April 1957), is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician and minister in the

New South Wales Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

before his forced resignation on 25 October 2006 for deceit from misleading parliament.

Background and early career

Scully was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and educated at state schools. He graduated in law from

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

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

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner 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 ...

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 Ho ...

as member for the safe Labor seat of Smithfield at the

1990 by-election Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

. 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 NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He later en ...

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 Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...

, 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 a former Australian politician who was the 40th Premier of New South Wales. He served from 3 August 2005 to 5 September 2008. From Sydney, Iemma attended the University of Sydney and the University of Techno ...

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 The Waterfall rail accident was a train accident that occurred on 31 January 2003 near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia. The train derailed, killing seven people aboard, including the train driver. The accident is famously remembered by ...

and other problems would have worked against the party at the next state election if he were leader. During Scully’s time in office, it was revealed that he misled parliament on multiple occasions and as a result was ultimately sacked by the NSW Premier for deceit
NSW minister sacked for deceit
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 f ...

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Carl 1957 births People educated at Chatswood High School 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