Thousands join paddle-out in honour of Bondi victims
We have some photos from the Bondi paddle-out this morning, when surfers entered the water to pay tribute to the victims of Sunday’s Hanukah terror attack. The ABC reported thousands attended the event this morning.
Key events
Sussan Ley earlier mentioned the terror threat level – it was raised from “possible” to “probable” in August 2024, and has remained there since.
Ley said secuirty agencies have not been properly funded.
They can’t do it without the resources they need. And part of our package is actually to lift those resources. Because the threat went from possible to probable, but the resources went down.
How can we support our agencies to do the work? And how can we leave it to them to gather the intelligence that they clearly need to? Because people have been allowed into this country without being properly screened to have the values that we want them to, that we need them to have, to contribute to our community.
Fifteen patients still in hospital with Bondi shooting injuries
There are currently 15 patients receiving care in several Sydney hospitals for their injuries, NSW Health has said.
No new people were discharged overnight, but one patient has moved from critical to critical-but-stable, and one from critical-but-stable to stable.
As of 8am, Friday 19 December:
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One patient is in a stable condition at Prince of Wales hospital.
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One patient is in a critical but stable condition and one patient is in a stable condition at St George hospital.
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Two patients are in a critical but stable condition and two patients are stable at St Vincent’s Hospital.
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One patient is in a critical but stable condition and four patients are stable at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
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Three patients are in a stable condition at Royal North Shore hospital.
We have some more photos here that show the huge numbers of people who headed to Bondi this morning for the paddle-out, organised by members of the Jewish community and local surf clubs.
A recitation of Psalm 23 was held in the moment before the paddle-out.
Thousands join paddle-out in honour of Bondi victims
We have some photos from the Bondi paddle-out this morning, when surfers entered the water to pay tribute to the victims of Sunday’s Hanukah terror attack. The ABC reported thousands attended the event this morning.
Sussan Ley says parliament should be recalled
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is speaking to the ABC. She says parliament should be recalled urgently.
They haven’t addressed the antisemitism that has been allowed to fester, particularly on our university campuses. With respect to hate speech, it is quite simple.
Will we look at the environment that we’re in now and what happened in south-western Sydney with counter-terrorism police, car ramming, getting people out on the streets in a situation you would expect to see in an overseas war zone? That tells you the threat level is probable.
The resources given to our agencies have dropped. My message is clear, and laws can be put in place to implement this. If you preach hatred, if you preach radical Islam in a way that hurts and harms your fellow man, if you incite violence or glorify terrorism, and you are here and you are not an Australian citizen, you will be deported.
Shadow immigration minister calls for expanding powers to strip citizenship
Scarr also called for expanding powers to strip citizenship:
We would expand the elements that would trigger that power to actually strip an Australian citizenship from a dual citizen. If you go to the relevant provisions of the act in the Citizenship Act, you’ll see a list of triggers for that power, which would be expanded so it captures hate preachers and other people who were disseminating antisemitic material, engaging in that sort of conduct in our community.
And then, secondly, it should be remembered that this applies to dual citizenship, so the assistant minister referred to people not being left stateless, and that is correct. But this would only apply where someone has a citizenship of another country as well as Australian citizenship. It wouldn’t apply to someone who would be left stateless.
Paul Scarr says parliament should be recalled to implement antisemitism laws
The shadow minister for immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs, Paul Scarr, is speaking on RN now, where he said parliament should be recalled to implement new antisemitism laws:
Given what happened last Sunday, given the urgency of this matter, given the calls from the Australian community, in particular from the Jewish community, I think a strong message needs to be sent that parliament is being recalled and we’re tackling these issues as an urgency.
And we do whatever we can. We do whatever we can in the immediate term and then we continue the work into the new year.
Matt Thistlethwaite says there will be ‘no excuses’ for hate speech
The assistant minister for immigration and foreign affairs and trade, Matt Thistlethwaite, has also been on RN. He said police and security intelligence agencies need to be well funded, and called for stronger antisemitism laws.
He says:
These actions that we are taking will ensure that we have the strongest laws the country has ever had to combat antisemitism and the preaching of hate speech in our community. So there’ll be no excuses in the future.
And we’re providing our police, our security and intelligence organisations with the tools to prosecute people if they undertake these activities.
Burke says new laws will focus on ‘hate preachers in particular’
Burke has been asked if the new laws will classify “globalise the intifada” as hate speech?
Be very clear on this. Our focus is on the hate preachers in particular, who have made comments that are completely dehumanising.
To other Australians, completely dehumanising. And people have said, how on earth is that allowed? And because they haven’t reached the link to a call for physical violence, they’ve stayed just below the threshold.
What we announced yesterday is that we will lower the threshold. But what I can’t do is play the game of this sentence will be in, this sentence will be out, these words will be in, these words will be out. We will be lowering the threshold to the extent that constitutionally we are able to, and it will be.
Tony Burke says fight against antisemitism ‘will never end’
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has been speaking on Radio National.
He said no government would ever be able to say they have done enough on antisemitism:
The fight against antisemitism is an ancient fight that will never end and there will never be a point, never be a point where any government of the day will have the right to say they have done enough on antisemitism.
He goes back to 2014, when then Abbott government minister George Brandis moved to change the hate speech laws, saying Australians had the right to be a bigot.
Burke said:
We are no longer the nation where we had the government of the day a decade ago claiming that the right that mattered was the right to be a bigot. The right that matters is the right for people to be able to be free, to have a celebration at the beach and to do so safely.
That’s the freedom that matters, not the freedom that somehow under freedom of speech you can go off and belittle and demean and dehumanise your fellow Australians.
Surfers pay tribute to victims of Bondi attack
About 700 surfers have been out on the water this morning in Bondi, forming a massive circle to pay tribute to the victims of the Bondi attack.
Their cheers could be heard from the shore.
The community has been organising swimming tributes this week to mourn the victims and begin to reclaim the beach.
Morning everyone, this is Cait Kelly. I will be with you today, bringing you all the updates.
Daniel Mookhey’s comments come after the Albanese government mapped out a plan to crack down on hate speech.
The five key points are:
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A new aggravated hate speech offence for preachers and leaders who promote violence.
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Increased penalties for hate speech promoting violence.
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Making “hate” an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment.
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Developing a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech promoting violence or racial hatred.
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Developing a federal offence for serious vilification based on race and/or advocating racial supremacy.
Read our explainer here:
Islamic State calls Bondi terrorism attack a ‘source of pride’
Islamic State has published an article on the Bondi Jewish festival shooting calling it a “source of pride”, Reuters reports.
The article published on the group’s Telegram channel praised the attack without explicitly claiming responsibility for it, the wire service said.
Jihadist media specialist Mina al-Lami, from BBC Monitoring, wrote on X about the article:
The group appeared to take credit for inspiring the attack, rather than for directly orchestrating it or being in contact with the attackers. It referred to the attackers as ‘heroes’ and ‘lions’.
It boasted about the influence of its ideology, narratives and online messaging, claiming that governments are unable to control its reach unless they shut down the internet entirely.
NSW treasurer: Palestinian resistance phrase should be considered hate speech
Stephanie Convery
The NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, says the Palestinian resistance phrase “globalise the intifada” should be considered hate speech as governments consider tougher laws on what can be said in public.
Mookhey was responding to questions at a press conference yesterday that came after British police announced this week they would arrest anyone chanting the phrase or holding a placard saying it.
Intifada means uprising or resistance, and is the term used by Palestinians for uprisings against Israel. The first intifada started in 1987, the second in 2000. For Palestinians it means resistance against oppression, but some Israelis associate the term with violence against them.
At the press conference yesterday, Mookhey responded to the question:
I think anyone who is saying something like ‘globalise the intifada’ is committing hate speech. I think that it’s clear, as we’ve seen, that the prime minister has just announced some reforms in these areas, but I personally think that any reasonable person would just see what the consequences of that has been on Sunday night. I think a person who is chanting globalise the intifada is chanting hate speech. They are dividing the community. They are jeopardising community cohesion. I don’t think that there’s a place for that in peaceful protest.
It is worth noting that, on Wednesday, the Victorian police commissioner, Mike Bush, said that since anti-vilification laws passed Victorian parliament earlier this year, there had been 40 investigations into hate speech but “globalise the intifada” was not considered hate speech under those laws.
Leading campaigners for Palestine in the UK called the crackdown on the phrase “political repression of protest for Palestinian rights”, while some Jewish groups welcomed it, saying the phrase was “intolerable” and “violent incitement”.
You can read more here:
Welcome
Morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before the morning blogger takes over.
The New South Wales treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, told a press conference yesterday that the Palestinian resistance phrase “globalise the intifada” should be considered hate speech as governments consider tougher laws on what can be said in public. More coming up.
Police in Sydney detained seven men yesterday evening after an operation in Liverpool which was prompted by what police called “information received that a violent act was possibly being planned”. We’ll have more updates as they come in this morning.
And Islamic State has published an article about the Bondi attack overnight, calling it a “source of pride” but stopping short of claiming responsibility. More on that soon as well.
