Policing levels left Hanukah event attendees ‘sitting ducks’, says NSW Liberal leader
Luca Ittimani
Kellie Sloane, NSW’s opposition leader, has said police didn’t provide enough resources to Sunday’s attack.
Sloane said more needed to be revealed about the decisions on police resourcing to protect Jewish events, both to protect the community and the police. She told ABC Radio Sydney :
The two police officers who ran towards danger and are in critical situations, we owe it to them, we owe it to their colleagues, to be asking questions about what more could have been done …
The Jewish community is at such an extreme risk. We knew this before the event on the first day of Hanukah. And I felt like they were sitting ducks, so no blame here at the moment, but we do need to understand more could have been done and why they weren’t protected.
When asked whether police had provided appropriate policing levels, Sloane said:
“Clearly in retrospect, they did not.”
Key events
Nationals leader says no need to change gun laws in wake of Bondi attack
Nationals leader David Littleproud has just told the ABC that Australia’s “gun laws work”. Asked what he thought about tightening restrictions, he said:
The gun laws work. Let me make this clear – one of those recommendations is around the sharing of information between agencies, which was one that was already in train. It’s a reannouncement.
But just understand, you can’t go and get a gun in this country and just walk in and get one. You need to undergo a fit and proper person test. You can’t get a gun of any calibre, you need to prove why you need a gun of a certain calibre. You go through training, licences don’t go on for perpetuity.
Littleproud said the system was working and should not be changed.
And I think this has been nothing more than a cheap political diversion by the prime minister who is running away from his culpability of forgetting what he has done in not seeing those cues and acting on the rising antisemitism, the decay of our society since eight October on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Josh Butler
Sussan Ley again demands Labor implement Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report ‘in full’
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has again demanded the Albanese government implement Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report “in full”, accusing Labor of allowing the recommendations to sit “gathering dust” in recent months.
Ley says her Coalition would support any action to combat extremism and strengthen counter-terror operations after the Bondi massacre. The Coalition today has announced an internal working group on antisemitism, extremism and terror, with its first priority being “the full implementation of the government’s own antisemitism envoy’s report which has sat gathering dust on the prime minister’s desk”.
This comes despite major concerns being raised about Segal’s calls for media monitoring, and cutting funding to arts organisations.
The Coalition’s taskforce – including senior members of the opposition – will also engage with Jewish community leaders and organisations “to ensure their security needs are understood and addressed”. The Coalition is also calling for a focus on examining “weaknesses and emerging risks across intelligence coordination, law enforcement powers, border integrity and the monitoring of individuals on terror watchlists”.
The Coalition’s response does not specifically mention a call for cracking down on gun laws or licensing schemes – which the Nationals leader David Littleproud, who is not on the taskforce, called a “distraction” from a focus on antisemitism and extremism.
But Ley said the Coalition “stands ready to support any serious and effective action that strengthens counter-terrorism, disrupts extremists and protects lives”.
“That must start with implementing the antisemitism envoy’s report in full, not shelving it or watering it down,” she added.
“Asio has been clear. Antisemitism represents the greatest threat to loss of life in Australia, and when our intelligence agencies issue warnings of that magnitude, political leaders have a duty to act.”
Albanese pays tribute to victims of attack
The PM said if the government needs to strengthen Australia’s hate speech laws, it will. He paid tribute to more of the people whose lives were lost on Sunday:
I pay tribute to Boris and Sofia Gurman, Boris attacked one of these terrorists as he got out of the car. And that caused Mr and Ms Gurman, who have been married for 60 years, to lose their life.
To Reuven Morrison, who threw bricks and took action to try to stop this occurring, also murdered by these terrorists. These are Australian heroes. Just as Ahmed al-Ahmed, who I was able to meet with yesterday, is an Australian hero.
I met with Rabbi Eli’s family yesterday. They’re going through an extraordinarily difficult time. Rabbi Eli was clearly much loved in the community, not just by his family as well. And I think all Australians’ thoughts and hearts are with those families as they go through farewelling loved ones.
The PM says he met with Jillian Segal yesterday:
I have spoken with her daily, and we’re continuing to work through a whole range of measures in the Segal report. Of course, on antisemitism. We are already implementing.
This isn’t a set-and-forget report. This is something that will be an evolving position; antisemitism has been around for a long period of time. Many nations, such as the United States, have had special envoys on antisemitism for a long period of time.
My government is the first to appoint one. Jillian Segal is doing an extraordinary job, we’ll continue to engage with her on an ongoing basis, including the lessons that arise from this atrocity.
‘Love is more powerful than hate’
The PM:
I’ll continue to look for what unites us, and I have seen that here this morning. We need to learn any lessons that are learned from this, undertake stronger action, undertake any legislative change, undertake any powers, additional powers … are needed across the board. To work with the Jewish community.
We want to stamp out and eradicate antisemitism from our society. We want to also stamp out the evil ideology of what would appear to be, from investigators, an Isis-inspired attack. That has no place, that sort of hatred.
What strengthens Australia is our love for each other. And at this time, I’m seeing a lot of evidence of that as well. Love is more powerful than hate. That is what we need to see.
The PM:
We need to, as a nation, to come together, to unite, to make sure that we celebrate the best of humanity that we have seen here in the nurses and medical professionals who provided that care and support to their fellow – fellow Australians.
PM lights Hanukkah candles with rabbis and Jewish community members
The PM said he and the governor general held a gathering last night with rabbis and members of the Jewish community.
It was an opportunity for us to pray together, for us to have those personal discussions as well. And I had discussions with family members who have lost relatives and loved ones.
People who are devastated by what has occurred. Australia will come through this. Hanukkah is a festival of the victory of light over darkness, and last night, together with the governor general, Rabbi Ben Elton of the Sydney synagogue, lit the candles to symbolise the victory of light over darkness.
‘Our nation will respond,’ PM says
Albanese:
This is an incredibly traumatic time for members of the Australian Jewish community. It has also shaken our nation. Our nation will respond. We will. We will hold people to account of for what has occurred. We will give whatever powers are necessary to our police forces, to our security and intelligence agencies arising from this act of terror, an act of antisemitism that, we saw play out on Sunday night.
‘Heroes’: Albanese praises medical staff who responded to Sunday’s attack
The PM is now speaking in Sydney. He says the medical staff who responded to Sunday’s tragedy “are heroes”.
They were not just people who were rostered on, but people who were not rostered on, who travelled from as far as the Central Coast when they heard that there would be a need.
The PM said there were eight people being operated on at once, with on at least one occasion, there being only 12 minutes between someone arriving at the emergency at St Vincent’s and being on the operating table.
In a traumatic experience, they responded with professionalism, with compassion and with the best of Australian values. And today was an opportunity for myself and the governor general to say thank you on behalf of Australians to the doctors, the surgeons, the nurses, the pathologists, the radiologists, the people who engaged in providing assistance to people in circumstances that were incredibly traumatic.
Luca Ittimani
NSW police to lift Bondi beach crime scene
Bondi beach will be reopened to the public later today when the crime scene lifts, the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, has confirmed.
The park where Sunday’s Hanukah event had been held and the neighbouring pavilion have been closed to the public since Sunday evening. Lanyon told ABC radio police had carried out forensic and ballistics investigations and would clean the area before allowing people to re-enter this afternoon:
We have been facilitating access to some vehicles and other possessions that are within the crime scene, but I expect that we’ll formally return that to the public this afternoon. But as I said, our priority is to make sure that it’s in appropriate condition whenever it returns to the public. We certainly don’t want to traumatise any people further.
Lanyon said police would maintain a strong presence in the area, with 330 officers patrolling the eastern suburbs and watching places of worship each day, after Operation Shelter, combating antisemitic incidents, was stepped up on Sunday evening.
Luca Ittimani
Liberal frontbencher says gun control not the solution
Julian Leeser, the Liberal frontbencher, has said gun control is not the solution to the attack on Bondi beach.
Leeser, a Jewish man and MP for Berowra in Sydney’s north, said government’s needed to focus on antisemitism, not gun laws, in responding to Sunday’s events. He told the ABC:
John Howard is right, as are the three former heads of the security agencies who have written in the papers today, that gun control is not the solution here. You’ve got to attack what put in the minds of the gun holders to go and commit this act in the first place and that means addressing antisemitism.
Former intelligence and defence heads Nick Warner, Duncan Lewis and Dennis Richardson told The Australian gun reforms would not be enough, echoing comments by Howard, the former prime minister.
The Coalition is convening a taskforce to combat antisemitism, which will look to improve connections between state and federal agencies to prevent terrorism, continuously engage with Jewish community to represent their views, and advocate for the antisemitism envoy’s policy recommendations, Leeser said.
Speaking from Bondi beach, Leeser described community members’ grief turning to anger as some Jewish Australians have started blaming the federal government for the events of Sunday.
There is a degree of bewilderment, sadness, there is a growing degree of anger that although people are shocked this has happened, it was also all so predictable … The anger is from the fact that the government, they feel, has not done enough.
Our photographer Blake Sharp-Wiggins is at Bondi for the paddle-out this morning and has just taken these pictures:
Penry Buckley
Hundreds of swimmers paddle out at Bondi in tribute to victims
Hundreds of swimmers at Bondi have formed human circles – in the beach and in the ocean – in honour of the victims of Sunday’s attack.
Bondi is known for its early morning swimmers and surfers, but many have not returned to the water since Sunday’s horrific events.
Today, two swimming clubs, the Great White Swim Club and Bondi Fairy Penguins, organised an event in honour of the 15 people who lost their lives, and in solidarity with the Jewish community.
They held a minute’s silence on the beach before swimming out to form human circles in the ocean.
Bondi Fairy Penguins committee member Sarah Davies said the group felt like it was “the right thing to do”.
We felt that it was important for the community to come together and also for us to show support to people who were affected … particularly the Jewish community.
A steady stream of people filtered down the beach as the sun rose over Bondi. Eventually, hundreds formed a circle several rows deep as swimmers linked arms, lowered their heads in reflection, and exchanged hugs before running into the surf.
From the beach, the spray from an enormous human circle could be seen in the water.
Swimmers also came out to thank first responders, including local lifesavers. They gathered in front of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, which is still inside police tape in the cordoned-off area.
Mick Ormsby, of the Bondi Fairy Penguins, gave a speech which he told Guardian Australia had paid tribute to the victims as well as the “utter courage and light and love … the service that first responders, police, the lifeguards, the volunteers from the clubs, the members of the public that did all that courageous stuff”.
Luca Ittimani
NSW Liberals say gun reform must not distract from Albanese’s failure on antisemitism
Kellie Sloane, NSW’s opposition leader, has warned gun laws must not distract from the “real issue” including antisemitism, while maintaining her support for the state premier’s reform push.
The Liberal leader and state MP for the Bondi area echoed comments yesterday from Coalition colleagues, including John Howard, discussing gun laws on ABC Radio, Sydney, this morning. She singled out the Albanese government for criticism:
This cannot be a distraction from the real issue at hand, which is ideology, terrorism, radicalisation, and a failure, particularly federally, to stand up to antisemitism, to call it out and to have very strong words and actions on antisemitism.
Sloane also criticised the NSW premier, Chris Minns, for an inconsistent focus on gun access, noting Minns had initially supported broadening gun use laws earlier in 2025, following a “right to hunt” bill sponsored by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party.
The premier’s been talking about some of the toughest gun laws in the country, but Labor has been supportive of expansion of shooting rights this year … Let’s have a consistent approach to gun reform.
The opposition leader continued to offer support for the crackdown on gun ownership Minns is now proposing, but said she would consider the details of new laws and declined to commit specifically to limiting gun ownership to Australian citizens when asked.
Our firearms laws must be fit for purpose in the modern state and there are clearly things that we need to look at … We’d need to see the detail of how that would work practically. We’re open to looking at it. I think this is a difficult area. Consistency in policy is also going to be important.
Policing levels left Hanukah event attendees ‘sitting ducks’, says NSW Liberal leader
Luca Ittimani
Kellie Sloane, NSW’s opposition leader, has said police didn’t provide enough resources to Sunday’s attack.
Sloane said more needed to be revealed about the decisions on police resourcing to protect Jewish events, both to protect the community and the police. She told ABC Radio Sydney :
The two police officers who ran towards danger and are in critical situations, we owe it to them, we owe it to their colleagues, to be asking questions about what more could have been done …
The Jewish community is at such an extreme risk. We knew this before the event on the first day of Hanukah. And I felt like they were sitting ducks, so no blame here at the moment, but we do need to understand more could have been done and why they weren’t protected.
When asked whether police had provided appropriate policing levels, Sloane said:
“Clearly in retrospect, they did not.”
22 patients still in Sydney hospitals with injuries from Bondi attack
There are currently 22 patients receiving care in several Sydney hospitals for their injuries.
This includes nine patients in critical or critical but stable conditions.
