January 31, 2025
Questions remain as to why Anthony Albanese was kept in the dark about the foiled “mass casualty” terror plot amid an escalating anti-Semitic crisis.
It has been revealed NSW police did not deem it “necessary” to inform the Prime Minister about the discovery of the caravan laden with enough Powergel explosives to create a 40m blast zone and with a note identifying significant Sydney Jewish sites.
In the wake of the discovery the Jewish community are beefing up security measures to protect themselves, while the Australian Electoral Commission have acknowledged they are alive to the potential impact deteriorating social cohesion could have come polling day.
It comes as Labor MP Josh Burns, writing in The Nightly, has called for Australians to heed their “collective responsibility” to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, warning “we cannot only legislate and arrest our way out of this”.
Reports emerged on Friday NSW Police had not deemed it “necessary” to inform the Prime Minister they had discovered a caravan laden with enough Powergel explosives to create a 40m blast zone and with a note identifying significant Sydney Jewish sites.
The Prime Minister refused to be drawn about when he had first been told about the caravan, saying he “did not go into operational matters”.
Police were called to Dural on January 19, after a local towed the caravan — parked hazardously on the side of the road for about six weeks — to their property and discovered the contents.
Inside, police found a note detailing prominent Jewish locations, including the Great Synagogue and Sydney’s Jewish museum.
NSW Premier Chris Minns was made aware of the discovery on January 20.
The Australian Federal Police were made aware on the same day and the joint counter terrorism team was formed.
A day after, Mr Minns stood alongside Mr Albanese after a Maroubra childcare centre was firebombed. A virtual national cabinet meeting occurred that same day, but state and territory leaders were not told about the discovery in Dural.
In the days after, more than 100 police officers were pulled in to the investigation, part of a coordinated investigation with the AFP, ASIO and other agencies.
While Mr Albanese receives daily national security briefings, on Friday he would not reveal whether he had been made aware of the foiled terror plot before the Daily Telegraph broke the story on Wednesday evening.
“What’s the correct protocol is making sure that we don’t speak about operational matters,” Mr Albanese said.
“I have no intention of undermining an ongoing investigation by going into the details.”
But given Mr Minns has revealed when he was brought in the loop, the Coalition say the public deserve to know when the PM was first briefed.
“The question is, given that we know that the AFP was engaged, given that we know that this is a joint counter-terrorism operation, when was the Prime Minister briefed? Was he briefed on the same day as Chris Minns?” home affairs spokesman James Paterson told Sky News.
“And if so, what action did he take in response to this? Did he convene a National Security Committee of Cabinet? What measures did they put in place to protect the Jewish community and all Australians?”
Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the PM could not succeed in tackling the anti-Semitism crisis “if he failed to put in place the right national security coordination arrangements”.
“It is unbelievable that after almost daily anti-Semitic attacks . . . Anthony Albanese appears to have failed to set the expectation that he be fully informed of significant developments such as a potential mass casualty terror plot,” she said.
Labor sources imply the Coalition and media are exaggerating the implications, with Mr Albanese saying the timing of when he had been briefed “should not be the source of political debate”.
The AFP had no comment about the timeline of events and who was informed and when.
Former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Mike Pezullo, told Sky News it would be “unusual” for a Prime Minister not to be informed about a police investigation with national security implications such as discovery of a bomb.
Ministers and heads of departments should not be involved in operational decision-making but did play a role in determining the strategic ramifications of such a plot. Knowledge of confidential information would help make those calculations, he said.
“It would be like a defence minister, or, in the old days, a minister for war not being told by the head of the armed services, something very secret, delicate that was going on, that the enemy was doing,” he said.
“We wouldn’t cop it in a war, and we shouldn’t cop it when it comes to domestic terrorism or domestic political violence.”
Unresolved questions about the handling of the case, as well as criticism of the Government’s response towards the national anti-Semitism crisis are set to overshadow what could be the final sitting of this term of Parliament.
The Coalition has pledged to push for mandatory minimum sentences for terrorism to be added to a Hate Crimes Bill already slated for the session.
Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said the caravan incident highlighted the need for tougher punishment.
Last week, the Opposition proposed minimum six-year jail terms for terrorism and adding the urging or threatening of violence towards a place of worship to the list of hate crimes — punishable by five to seven years.
It also pledged to introduce mandatory minimum sentences of 12 months imprisonment for the public display of prohibited Nazi symbols, prohibited terrorist organisation symbols, and giving the Nazi salute in public.
Meanwhile, the deterioration in social cohesion has the AEC on alert ahead of the looming federal election, with the agency on Friday saying they were “closely monitoring” whether security measures would be required at polling centres.
Commissioner Jeff Hope said while they hadn’t made “any demonstrable changes yet”, the agency was alive to the possibility being needed.
“For me, it would be incredibly sad day for Australia if we have to put some form of security at a polling place. I hope we never see that.
“We’re doing everything possible with the security agencies that that is not required.”
It comes as Mr Burns, the Labor Macnamarra MP, says Australia “must fix” the anti-Semitism crisis that has breathed life into a fear he and other Jewish Australians had heard about but rarely experienced before October 7, 2023.
Mr Burns’ office was attacked last June, and his community was targeted again in December when the Adass Israel Synagogue was firebombed in a terror attack. He said he had hoped the Middle East ceasefire would calm tensions, but it had not.
“For me, this isn’t a political issue. It is a lived reality. It is real and it is painful, and over the past 15 months I have felt it deeply,” he wrote in The Nightly, noting that anti-Semitism comes in many forms.
He said while authorities were “working tirelessly” to capture those who have committed attacks, legislative reform was being done to strengthen security and funding was going towards beefing up security, “we cannot only legislate and arrest our way out of this”.
“We must also educate people to understand the history and dangers of racism, incitement and hatred and the consequences of leaving them unchecked — that comes from listening to the lived experience of the Jewish community,” he said.
“It is a collective responsibility of all Australians — to speak up and oppose this dangerous bigotry.
“And we deserve to be safe and free from discrimination and violence.”
