Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday, the twenty third of January.
I'm Billy, I'm emma.
There have been several anti Semitic attacks in Sydney in the past three months, which has led to governments and police, as well as leaders of other faiths uniting to condemn, investigate and press charges against those responsible. This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi announced a national database to track antismitic
crime following a meeting with the National Cabinet. At the same time, the Australian Federal Police has announced it is investigating if overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs. Well tell you what you need to know in today's podcast, Billy.
Like you said, there have been several anti Semitic attacks in Sydney, even in Melbourne in recent months. We've seen a real increase in these kinds of hate crimes. It's moved into a national conversation now which we're going to unpack today. But what's the latest on these attacks? There was more this week. What can you tell us?
Yeah, So on Tuesday, just before one am so overnight, emergency services were called to a childcare center in Marubra. Now, for those who are not familiar, Marubra is a suburb in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, which is where many of these anti Semitic attacks have taken place, and the Eastern suburbs is also where a lot of Sydney's Jewish
population live. Now, the childcare center was near a synagogue and it was lit on fire, and the center's walls also had anti Semitic graffiti spray painted on and police has said that of course you know, there was a fire, there was extensive down image to the building, and that childcare center remains closed today.
And that childcare center, I think it's important to add, is a non denominational center. It's not. It was not a Jewish childcare center. It was not a particular religious center. It just happened to be located next to a synagogue exactly.
And an investigation into who is responsible for that attack is now underway by New South Wales police. After this happened in the morning of Tuesday, New South Wales Premier Chris Mins held a press conference saying these antisemitic attacks are the opposite of the kind of country that we
all want to live in. And he was standing next to Prime Minister Anthony Alberzi during that press conference, who also added, this is a place for children and families and it should never have been denigrated by this despicable and horrifying crime. And like we've mentioned, Emma, this was the latest in a string of attacks. This was not an isolated incident. There have been eight similar attacks on buildings and in Sydney in the past three months.
You've mentioned there is this ongoing investigation by police into that attack on the daycare center. Where are police up to overall with these string of offenses.
Yeah, so there are multiple different they call them operations or strike forces that have been set up both at the New South Wales Police Force level and then also at the Australian Federal police level. I'll go through New South Wales Police first. So they have set up strike Force per last December to investigate these anti Smitic attacks.
Since then, nine people have been charged, and that includes one person who was charged yesterday for allegedly setting fire to a synagogue in Newtown, which is also a suburban Sydney, and that happened earlier this month. Now, that person appeared
in court yesterday and was denied bail. And then at the federal police level, the AFP, they also set up an operation in December to investigate anti semitism, and since that operation was established, there have been one hundred and sixty six reports of anti semitism, with fifteen under investigation and one person arrested.
We did hear from New South Walest Premier Chris Mins this week. He had very strong language in his condemnation of this daycare attack and he gave us a bit of an update on those charges and investigations as you mentioned, and several of the people arrested across the board have been refused bail, and he seems to be wanting to make it very clear that investigators are taking this very seriously.
Yeah, police and government officials have both said multiple times that the perpetrators of these crimes will face the full force of the law. That is a phrase that we have heard a lot when talking about these crimes. And like I mentioned before, this is certainly not an issue that is just isolated to New South Wales. Even there have also been arrests in Victoria, but certainly most of the recent attacks have been in Sydney.
And so this kind of all culminated in this announcement on Tuesday that there would be a snap national Cabinet meeting. National Cabinet was convened. What do we know about that meeting? What came from it?
Yeah, for anyone not familiar with National Cabinet, it is a meeting of all of the state and territory leaders. The name is kind of confusing because it is separate to the government's cabinet, which is all of the federal government's most senior ministers. So there's that government cabinet, and then completely separate to that, there is this National Cabinet with the leaders of the state territory governments and also
the Prime Minister. And this is when the Prime Minister and of course the leaders of the states and territories get together to discuss a matter of significant concern to the nation. And it was actually first organized in the early days of the COVID pandemic, and it's been called kind of periodically ever since whenever there is a nationwide issue that leaders want to address together.
I can remember one of the more recent national Cabinet meetings being about addressing the domestic violence crisis in the country as an example of what kind of the threshold is for national cabinet to be assembled.
Yeah, exactly. And I always find it surprising that they didn't have this prior to the pandemic. Yeah, it feels like a really necessary thing for them to have. But back to this, So on Tuesday, the Prime Minister called this meeting and what came from that is the announcement that there will be a new national database to better
inform and coordinate responses to anti Semitic incidents. Now, this is on top of a number of previous announcements the federal government has made over the past few months, mostly around increased funding for police and security around Jewish institutions. Now, in terms of this announcement on Tuesday, there wasn't really that much detail provided beyond the fact that there will
be this new database. But my understanding is that it will be similar to how last year the government announced a National Day Database for domestic violence, which was also done to bring together all of the data of each individual state and territory in one place, and the idea is that that database can then help inform new policies and it can also help law enforcement develop the most
effective measures to combat the issue. So there is kind of precedence around having this one national database for a significant issue, and.
It can be confusing and often trends missed when police at a state level are dealing with their own investigations and it's not until we kind of zoom out nationally that you can start to connect the dots. So at the same time as national Cabinet canven to come to announce this database, the AFP also announced and that's the Australian Federal Police. It also announced that it was looking into whether overseas actors could be involved in these attacks.
And I think this is a really interesting part of the story and perhaps a headline. We weren't expecting, Billy, what are we talking about when we say overseas actors?
So we don't know too much detail. I would say that they did keep their cards quite close to their chest, but basically what they said is they're investigating whether individuals or potentially groups are coordinating these attacks and potentially paying people in Australia to carry out these antismitic attacks.
So groups or individuals overseas potentially coordinating with people here on the ground in Australia. So they're investigating the idea that these attacks might not just be within the Australian community, but there's something more sinister internationally at.
Play exactly, And they said that one line of inquiry they're looking at is if young people are being intentionally radicalized online by these potential overseas actors and then being encouraged to commit anti Semitic attacks. They're also looking into how possible payment could have been made, including if cryptocurrency has been used.
It's so interesting because of course we're talking more and hearing more and more about online extremism radicalization, but I think sometimes that feels like a really far away concept. So to hear in real time how a national investigation might be looking into the use of that radicalization online playing out in this way is really concerning, of course, but so interesting.
Yeah. It kind of speaks to this new age of crime that we are clearly in and how the Internet or different types of you know, evolving technologies are being
weaponized to carry out crime. Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi also commented on this yesterday, he said that he was reluctant to provide too much detail out of concern that it could compromise their investigations, but he said that it would appear that some of these attacks are being perpetrated by people and this is a quote, who don't have a
particular issue, aren't motivated by an ideology, but paid actors. Again, they haven't confirmed that that is just a line of investigation, but that is what they've told us is where they're focusing their energy at the moment.
So we've seen this spate of anti Semitic attacks arise in anti semitism across the country in recent months, but Sydney's also dealt with increased Islamophobia, is that right?
Yeah, And this is also really important to mention. So at the same time as police conduct investigations into these anti Semitic attacks, they are also investigating a recent incident in Wiley Park, which is a suburb of southwestern Sydney. So on the seventeenth of January last week, at a supermarket that stocks Lebanese groceries, a wall was vandalized with Islamophobic graffiti and those investigations into that incident are still ongoing.
And that was also not an isolated incident. There has been other Islamophobic graffiti that has been spray painted in Sydney. For example, last December police investigated islamophobic graffiti in chester Hill. So, like you said, Emma, Sydney has also dealt with Islamophobia. And there has been this wave of religious hate crime and it has seen religious leaders from many faiths come together to condemn all religiously motivated hate crimes.
With this concern around it increase in these hate crimes, religiously motivated, racially motivated. How has the federal government responded at a community level?
Yeah, So last year the federal government announced two new appointments the special roles. Now, a special envoy is someone who advises the government on a particular area and advocates for a specific cause or group of people. So in July last year, lawyer Gillian Siegel was announced as Australia's first Special Envoy to combat anti Semitism. At the time, Prime Minister Anthony Albernizi said Seagull's role is designed to help Jewishes Stralians feel safe and included. In response to
rising anti semitism since the Israel Hamas War. Began and then in September after Malik was announced as a Special Envoy to combat Islamophobia in Australia. Now, Malik, who worked in the New South Wales Premier's department for over a decade, said he doesn't intend to quote advocate that one form of hatred is more important than another. Both anti Semitism and Islamophobia are unacceptable and both appointments will serve three year terms and report to the PM.
Billy, thank you so much for breaking that down for us today and explaining everything that's going on in Sydney around Australia. Of course, this is a story that is seemingly evolving by the day. We will continue to keep you guys updated whatever comes next, and especially as we hear more from National Cabinet on this one. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Ours.
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My name is Lily Maddon. And I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calkatin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.