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NSW Premier Chris Minns has slapped down MPs calling for the repeal of controversial hate-speech laws, saying doing so would send a “toxic message” to the Jewish community.

The stern rebuke comes with the premier under considerable pressure after the Australian Federal Police revealed a Dural caravan filled with mining explosives and initially attributed to domestic terrorism was a “con job” perpetrated by crime lords seeking leverage.

Labor MPs and the crossbench have sought information from the premier, saying the revelations brought the three hate-speech bills, rammed through the parliament on February 21, into a new light. Libertarian MP John Ruddick says he will introduce a bill to repeal the legislation next week.

But in a statement released on Thursday morning, Minns categorically ruled out the prospect, saying the laws were important to “maintaining social cohesion” and were not just in response to antisemitism but “apply to anyone, preying on any person, at any time”.

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“I want to make clear the NSW Government will not be repealing hate speech laws passed in Parliament last month,” he said.

“While the caravan was part of a criminal conspiracy – and not the plot of a terrorist organisation – it was still appalling racial hatred. It targeted the Jewish community. It targeted a racial group to instil terror in our state.”

Minns said in an earlier interview with the ABC he was told from the “earliest stages” that the Dural caravan may be the work of organised crime. But he rejected the idea the laws had been passed under a false pretence, saying a number of antisemitic attacks in Sydney over the summer demonstrated the necessity of the laws.