Minns: ‘We are not going to solve this huge problem with more hate’
The premier says authorities can’t do anything to stop an anti-immigration rally planned for Sunday in Sydney but that any gathering will be met with a “massive police presence”.
What I would say is this is the last thing we need right now, an attack on immigrants or immigrant communities. The Jewish community are burying their dead and deserve an opportunity to do that [in a] state of grace and with some peace. We are not going to solve this huge problem with more hate.
Minns said those who are angry or concerned might honour the request of a rabbi who was killed during the Bondi attacks who suggested people do a “good deed for someone you’ve never met” instead of giving into a “corkscrew of hate”.
If you want to do something positive, give blood, donate to charity, do something positive.
Key events
A key piece of Port Arthur-era gun reform remains unfinished. Could it have helped prevent the Bondi attack?
A national firearms register, which would track weapons across the country in real time, was a priority for law enforcement and gun control advocates after the 1996 Port Athur massacre.
But almost 30 years later, it remains unfinished.
The Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana told Guardian Australia this week that a robust national firearms database would have allowed New South Wales police to better assess the risk posed by the Bondi gunmen ahead of Sunday’s terror attack.
Sajid Akram, who was shot dead by police, held a firearm licence and owned six guns, which he and his son Naveed allegedly used to open fire on Jewish families celebrating Hanukah at Bondi beach.
It was disclosed on Monday that Naveed, who has now been charged with 59 offences including 15 counts of murder, came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) in October 2019 “on the basis of being associated with others”.
For more, read The Guardian Australia’s full reporting here:
Aussie honours Bondi victims in Scottish league game
A rising Australian player in Scotland has paid tribute to victims of the Bondi tragedy on an afternoon when Socceroo Martin Boyle shone again.
Sydney’s Jewish soccer export Zac Sapsford has paid tribute to victims of the Bondi shooting at a Scottish Premiership match, with his manager at Dundee United explaining the young striker knew people involved in the tragedy.
At the end of a week when the 23-year-old former Western Sydney Wanderers prospect made a name for himself in Scotland by scoring a spectacular winner in United’s rare victory over champions Celtic, Sapsford wore a black armband in their 1-1 home draw with Hibernian on Saturday.
United boss Jim Goodwin was left to explain afterwards:
Unfortunately, Zac knew a number of people involved in the tragedy in Bondi Beach. His family stay quite close to there.
– AAP
Australians asked to hold minute’s silence tonight at 6.47pm
Australians are being invited to light a candle at 6.47pm this evening and hold a minute’s silence to mark the moment when the gunman in the Bondi attack opened fire.
In a post to social media, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the opportunity marked a “moment for Australians to stand with our Jewish community”.
At 6:47pm, you can light a candle in your window to remember the victims of the antisemitic terrorist attack in Bondi and support those who are grieving.
Standing together to show that hatred and violence will never define who we are.
Tom McIlroy
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is convening the national security committee of cabinet again this morning, the eighth time the group has met since the Bondi shootings last weekend.
Albanese is expected to join mourners commemorating the 15 people killed at a memorial service at Bondi Beach tonight, with the theme of a night in unity.
Sunday has been declared a national day of reflection to honour the victims and to give Australians a chance to stand in solidarity with the country’s Jewish community. A national day of mourning is planned in 2026 and a permanent memorial site is expected to be built in the future.
Yesterday the PM said he expected tonight’s commemorations at Bondi to be “a very significant event for our nation.”
Minns says the thought that something might have been done to avoid or prevent the attack keeps him awake at night.
It’s something I stay up at night wondering about and worrying about. I bear responsibility for it. Of course I do. I was the premier of the state over the last two years when there’s been this ratcheting up of antisemitism in our community.
This is why the premier says a royal commission is necessary to “ensure it doesn’t happen again”.
Minns: ‘We are not going to solve this huge problem with more hate’
The premier says authorities can’t do anything to stop an anti-immigration rally planned for Sunday in Sydney but that any gathering will be met with a “massive police presence”.
What I would say is this is the last thing we need right now, an attack on immigrants or immigrant communities. The Jewish community are burying their dead and deserve an opportunity to do that [in a] state of grace and with some peace. We are not going to solve this huge problem with more hate.
Minns said those who are angry or concerned might honour the request of a rabbi who was killed during the Bondi attacks who suggested people do a “good deed for someone you’ve never met” instead of giving into a “corkscrew of hate”.
If you want to do something positive, give blood, donate to charity, do something positive.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has also pledged to “fight radical terrorism”, anti-Semitism and racism “wherever we find it” in the wake of the Bondi attacks.
The Premier made the comments while speaking to ABC news following an earlier appearance on Channel 7 where he described extremist ideology as an “evil washing machine of hate with different things tipped into the top”.
However, the Premier said that he believed there was a slippery slope where slogans and social media posts manifested in vandalism and arson against Jewish places of worship.
I believe anti-Semitism begins with slogans and graduates on line and then it’s a Twitter post and anti-Semitism in the street, and graffiti on the side of the synagogue, then we saw a synagogue burned to the ground and arson amount manifests itself in violent acts in our community. This is an escalation and I believe, that in many cases when you see violent imagery and hateful slogans and chanting on the steps of the Opera House or in our parks, in our community, it is unleashing forces that the organisers of the protests can’t control.
Whatever the reasons for those protests and genuine grievances or concerns about what is happening overseas, my responsibilities in Sydney today.
The premier’s mention of the Opera House protest referred to events on 10 October 2023. Two days after the Hamas attack, pro-Palestine activists marched from Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House, which had been lit up in white and blue in solidarity with Israel after the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
A widely shared video of the protest included claims the protesters were chanting “Gas the Jews”, although NSW police later said an independent expert had analysed audio and visual files and concluded that the phrase used was “Where’s the Jews?”. The chant “Fuck the Jews” was also used.
Minns flagged “enormous change” within New South Wales, saying that there’s no “[going] back to normal” after the Bondi attacks.
We’ve announced the first tranche of changes in NSW in relation to hate speech, protests, gun laws, terrorist slogans, terrorist chants. But this isn’t the end of it. And I just want to make it clear in five, six, ten weeks time, we just can’t turn the page on this and pretend that it didn’t exist and everybody goes back to normal.
Minns reiterated his pledge to crackdown on “hate preachers” within New South Wales saying his government will work to target “those that preach hate in our community, that put hate in young people’s hearts”.
We need to send a persistent and long term message that we’re not going to put up with this. And it’s not the country that it’s not the country that most of us in Australia recognise.
Royal commission into Bondi shooting will complete ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of how attack occurred, premier says
A royal commission into the events surrounding the Bondi attacks will complete the “jigsaw” and give Australians the answers they are looking for in the wake of the attacks, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says.
Speaking to Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Sunday morning, the premier said an independent inquiry was “absolutely essential” to better understand happened and shape his state government’s response going forward.
I’ve got bits and pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. We know parts of why this occurred on Sunday, but until we have the full picture … I can’t explain that to the people of NSW.
The Premier said he could not offer a timeframe for when it will happen as he still had to consult with Jewish community leaders.
Minns added the details of any royal commission would need to be worked out in coordination with the federal government to ensure it was given the proper authority.
We need to make sure the terms of reference are tight. And I don’t mind telling you this morning I haven’t drafted them yet, and I’m not going to draft them until I speak to leaders of the Jewish community who’ve been burying their dead this week.
Thirteen people still being treated in hospital
Thirteen people injured during the Bondi attacks remain in hospital where they are undergoing treatment, according to a NSW Health update at 7.30 this morning.
In its latest update, New South Wales health authorities say the patients are receiving care in hospitals across Sydney, with one patient in a critical condition at St Vincent’s hospital.
Three people are in a critical but stable condition at St George and St Vincent’s hospitals.
Another nine people are in a stable condition and receiving treatment at the Prince of Wales, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore hospitals.
Good morning and welcome to the live blog
A week since 15 people were killed in a terror attack at a Hanukah event at Bondi beach, Australians will remember the 15 lives lost in a national day of mourning.
Flags will fly at half-mast and buildings will be lit in yellow as the nation stands in solidarity with the Jewish community on Sunday before a formal public service for victims and survivors. Lights will beam into the sky above Bondi Pavilion, where thousands of flowers and tributes have been laid since the tragedy.
NSW parliament will sit this coming week to consider legislation in response to the Bondi attack, Chris Minns has said – we’ll bring you all the reactions to his announcement yesterday that the state will move to ban the display of hateful symbols, matching national laws, and give police new powers.
And Anthony Albanese has backed Minns’s call for a state-based royal commission – more on that soon too.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
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