Albanese condemns anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney as ‘a hate crime’
The prime minister is speaking with ABC RN about the anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney overnight, describing it as an “outrage” and “another antisemitic attack”.
Anthony Albanese said:
I’ve spoken with the AFP commissioner Kershaw this morning, I’ll be briefed by AFP … officials as well. I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There’s no place for antisemitism in this country, or anywhere for that matter.
Asked about the distinction between the graffiti being anti-Israel or antisemitic, the PM said this “isn’t an attack on a government, this is an attack on people because they happen to be Jewish.”
The idea that we take a conflict overseas and bring it here is something that is quite contrary to what Australia was built on, which is one where we have great strength [that] comes from the fact that people can live with different faiths, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, side by side, and we’re strengthened by that diversity, we respect each other. And this is a hate crime. It’s as simple as that.
Key events
Anthony Albanese was asked about criticism that it took him four days to visit the site of the Adass Israel synagogue, after it was hit by an arson attack last week.
The PM outlined a range of measures he took immediately after this – being briefed by the AFP, speaking on the radio, putting out a statement, speaking with Josh Burns, speaking with Jewish community leaders, visiting a synagogue in Perth, and establishing additional funding.
On Monday, we had the National Security Committee meeting … We received full briefings [and federal authorities] then declared it officially an act of terrorism, we established AFP Operation Avalanche that day, with coordination across the AFP, state police officials and our intelligence agencies, led, of course, by Asio as well. And I held a press conference …
So we have consistently taken action, will continue to take action, will continue to take advice as well from the special envoy, and will continue as well to listen to and to engage with our police forces and the appropriate authorities.
Albanese calls out ‘divisive’ comments from opposition
Liberal senator and shadow finance minister Jane Hume was also on ABC RN just earlier, denouncing the graffiti is antisemitic and “an appalling attack”.
She had argued the government wasn’t doing enough to combat antisemitism, saying it had “prevaricated” and “used weasel words and wishy washy language”.
Speaking just now, Anthony Albanese said this was “yet again a divisive comment”.
This [is] a time for unity, not a time to seek political advantage or to seek to divide … This is a time where we should unite around our common Australian values, and those values are respect for each other.
Has the PM spoken with Peter Dutton? He responded that “I speak to Peter Dutton all the time”, not specifying.
The prime minister is speaking with ABC RN about the anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney overnight, describing it as an “outrage” and “another antisemitic attack”.
Anthony Albanese said:
I’ve spoken with the AFP commissioner Kershaw this morning, I’ll be briefed by AFP … officials as well. I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There’s no place for antisemitism in this country, or anywhere for that matter.
Asked about the distinction between the graffiti being anti-Israel or antisemitic, the PM said this “isn’t an attack on a government, this is an attack on people because they happen to be Jewish.”
The idea that we take a conflict overseas and bring it here is something that is quite contrary to what Australia was built on, which is one where we have great strength [that] comes from the fact that people can live with different faiths, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, side by side, and we’re strengthened by that diversity, we respect each other. And this is a hate crime. It’s as simple as that.
Full Story podcast: the ‘shocking and preventable’ deaths at centre of landmark domestic violence inquiry
The Northern Territory coroner has handed down findings in an inquest into the horrific domestic violence deaths of four Aboriginal women. The landmark report exposed systemic failings and made 35 recommendations aimed at stemming what the coroner called an “epidemic of violence”.
For our Full Story podcast today, Nour Haydar speaks to Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor, Lorena Allam, and Indigenous affairs reporter, Sarah Collard, about the four women at the centre of the inquest and the coroner’s findings.
Josh Butler Pat Anderson stresses official status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags
Continuing from our last post: Pat Anderson went on to stress that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were official flags of Australia:
Dutton may choose to create his own false narrative, but these are the indisputable facts. The Morrison government paid more than $20m to obtain the copyright of the Aboriginal flag in 2022. The then minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt of the LNP, said: ‘Now that the commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no one can take it away.’
Flying the flags and standing before them does not undermine Australian unity. It recognises it.
Labor politicians heavily criticised Peter Dutton yesterday for his remarks, but the opposition leader stood by his stance in several media interviews.
Josh Butler Respected Indigenous leader Pat Anderson AO has accused Peter Dutton of an “inflammatory political move” in saying he wouldn’t use the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in official press conferences.
Anderson, co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue – which spearheaded the concept of an Indigenous voice to parliament and was a leading group backing last year’s unsuccessful referendum – was scathing of Dutton’s remarks, expressing concern at the aftermath of the voice vote.
She said in a statement overnight:
It’s deeply disappointing and disturbing that some people have extended the “no” to all things recognising, and more importantly celebrating, First Nations Peoples, histories and cultures.
This is yet another remark from a man who’s made a career of using First Nations matters to not only invoke hatred but as a deliberate and inflammatory political move in his quest for the top job.
Josh Butler The prime minister has given a statement on the latest antisemitic incident in Sydney. Anthony Albanese said this morning:
The incident in Sydney is an outrage and another antisemitic attack. I will be briefed by AFP Operation Avalite officials this morning.
I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There is no place for hatred or antisemitism in our community.
Albanese, the Australian federal police and Asio announced operation Avalite on Monday, to address anti-semitic conduct nationwide.
The PM is in Brisbane today to give a major speech on childcare. We’ll bring you more of that when he appears around lunchtime.
Bowen on renewables rollout, power prices
Chris Bowen is being questioned on the rollout of renewable energy – can the government achieve 82% renewables in five years?
He said the pipeline of investments is “very, very strong”, saying:
We’ve seen more investment in the last quarter than we did in all of 2023 – that indicates to me that the policy settings that were put in place aren’t working … The pipeline of investments is very, very strong. We’re working with states to improve the planning regime to get to faster consideration, whether that’s rejection or approval. We’re doing that at our federal level.
Pressed on power prices, Bowen said Australia had just had “the largest reduction in energy bills in [the nation’s] history”, with a reduction of 30% according to the ABS.
We went to the election promising more renewable energy to put downward pressure on power prices. That’s exactly what we’re doing … We’re focused on cost of living, the alternative is focused on culture wars and flags and matters which will not provide any cost of living to the Australian people.
Bowen condemns anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney overnight
The energy and climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is also up on ABC radio this morning, where he has responded to the anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in Sydney overnight:
All Australians of goodwill would be outraged. Obviously, I’ve only seen the report in the last little while, but it is deeply distressing, and we join with the community in condemning what is clearly an antisemitic attack on Australians going about their everyday life …
I think the most important thing is that community and government come together … [We need to] work even harder to combat antisemitism and condemn it in all its force.
Fletcher says he isn’t sure ‘what the term culture war actually means’
Does Paul Fletcher agree with sentiments shared by fellow moderate Simon Birmingham as he prepares to leave politics – to avoid culture wars?
Fletcher responded that the most important thing for the Liberals to do is provide “a clear alternative for the Australian people given the grim economic circumstances that we face”.
Pressed on the issue, he responded that “I’m not entirely sure what the term culture war actually means”, instead pointing back to economic management.
At the moment, Australia’s prosperity is under real threat, our productivity is collapsing, the only growth is coming from the public sector …
Paul Fletcher confident Liberals will pick up new seats at next election
Yesterday, Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher announced he would not re-contest the next election.
He spoke with ABC radio just a moment ago and was asked if he was concerned about a loss of moderate voices in the party – after Liberal senator Simon Birmingham also announced he would leave politics at the next election.
Fletcher said he “wouldn’t agree with that characterisation”.
The Liberal party is at its strongest when it has senior people, and people across the party room, from all of the different strands and philosophical traditions that make up our party …
There’ll be more able people coming into the party room around the country at the next election. I think we can confidently say there are people who are going to win seats that are not presently Liberal seats.
So I’m confident that the different strands, the varying strands of Liberal philosophical tradition, will continue to be well represented at the party room.
Photos: anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra
Here is a photo of the anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in Sydney that NSW police are investigating (see more earlier in the blog).
Emily Wind Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties. Thanks to Martin for kicking things off – I’ll be with you for most of today as we take you through our rolling coverage.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
Minns says antisemitism at all-time high
Chris Minns said he had received briefings saying antisemitism was at an all-time high:
We have, per capita, the largest number of Holocaust survivors after Israel in the world. They came to Australia precisely because it was a safe place where you can practice your religion free of discrimination or hate.
It’s up to civic leaders, political leaders, to protect those institutions and protect that culture.
Minns flags ‘massive’ response from police in coming days
On ABC radio this morning, NSW premier Chris Minns said it would be “wilful” to turn a blind eye and say the overnight vandalism in Woollahra was “anything other than an antisemitic attack”. He said:
The location of the crime, the suggestion [in the graffiti] that they should kill Israel, the sequence of events following the burning down of a synagogue in Melbourne, the attacks in Sydney several weeks ago, the demonstrations outside religious institutions.
The premier said there had to be “zero tolerance when it comes to people that want to … rip apart our community”.
He said there would be a “massive” response from police in coming days.
Josh Taylor Telstra has paid a $3m fine to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) over an disruption to its triple-zero emergency call centre in the early hours of 1 March this year.
The issue occurred due to a high volume of registration requests the centre had received from medical alert devices at 3.30am, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said in a blog post explaining the outage last month. It coincided with other system activity that triggered a fault and required the use of a backup, which had incorrect phone numbers for eight of the 24 state emergency operators.
The result was for 90 minutes around 148 of the 494 calls made in that time were not transferred to emergency services, though ultimately 127 of these went through a manual email and callback process, with the remaining 21 advising they did not require emergency assistance.
Acma’s consumer lead, Samantha Yorke, said it was concerning Telstra had neglected to update its backup phone data as the emergency call provider, but that the company had a “strong record of compliance” in this role and made considerable efforts to keep the public informed during the outage.
Telstra has been open and apologetic about the outage, communicated effectively to the public and took a variety of immediate actions when problems were identified. These actions go a long way to restoring the community’s trust in this critical service.
NSW premier Chris Minns quickly condemned the vandalism in Woollahra, which he called a “shocking” antisemitic attack. He said:
This is not the Sydney we want. These racist attempts to divide our city won’t work. I’ll speaking to police this morning. [The vandals] will be found and they will face the full force of the law.
Police are investigating after cars and buildings were vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney’s east.
About 1am this morning, emergency services responded to reports of a vehicle on fire in Magney Street, Woollahra, NSW police said in a statement.
This vehicle, along with another, two buildings and the footpath along Magney Street, had been graffitied.
Images shown in multiple media reports show some of the graffiti was anti-Israel.
Police said they wished to speak with two people believed to have been in the vicinity at the time. They are described as of slim build, between 15-20 years of age, wearing face coverings, and dark clothing.
Martin Farrer Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the morning stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind to take the wheel.
Police are investigating after vehicles and buildings were damaged in Sydney’s eastern suburbs: a car was set on fire and buildings were daubed with anti-Israel graffiti. The premier, Chris Minns, called it a “shocking” antisemitic attack. More on this coming up.
With the Reserve Bank cutting off the economic escape route for Labor with every passing month, Anthony Albanese will dangle a big childcare subsidy to voters today in his government’s latest bid to wrestle the cost-of-living beast to the ground. We’ll have all the details when he speaks later this morning.
Peter Dutton is this week expected to announce the long-awaited costings for his plan to build nuclear reactors in Australia. It comes as a former CSIRO energy director has said Dutton’s suggestion that the agency’s damning report on the cost of nuclear energy was influenced by the government is “incredibly disappointing” and “absurd”.
Telstra announced overnight that it has paid a $3m fine to the Australian Communications and Media Authority over a disruption to its triple-zero emergency call centre in the early hours of 1 March this year. More coming up.
Albanese condemns anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney as ‘a hate crime’
Pat Anderson accuses Dutton of ‘inflammatory’ move on Indigenous flags
Albanese condemns anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney
Good morning
Telstra pays $3m fine for triple-zero disruption
NSW premier condemns vandalism in Woollahra
Anti-Israel graffiti attack on cars in eastern Sydney
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