Mike Baird says he has full faith in the New South Wales police force despite “disturbing” public admissions of infighting between the state’s top cops.

In extraordinary testimonies before a parliamentary inquiry, senior officers have revealed bitter divisions over a phone-bugging scandal that led to the deputy commissioner Nick Kaldas being targeted by a fellow deputy commissioner, Catherine Burn.

The premier says he will wait until the inquiry concludes before the government responds. “I am not disputing that some of the events we have seen are disturbing,” Baird said on Saturday.

“I think we need to wait until we get all the facts on the table. I’m not going to respond to part of the facts or part of the story.”

He said his government had opposed the parliamentary inquiry because he did not want to slow down the ombudsman’s investigation into the phone bugging. Kaldas was one of more than 100 police allegedly spied on more than a decade ago as part of a covert internal corruption investigation.

The inquiry is examining a NSW ombudsman investigation into the bugging claims and their subsequent handling by police.



The police minister, Stuart Ayres, also backed the force, saying there had been a reduction of crime across the state.



“There’s no doubt that having the senior echelons of the NSW police force play out disputes on TV screens is not comfortable for anyone,” he said. “The reality of the performance of the NSW police force is it’s lowering crime.”