Australia news live: Daily Telegraph says NSW police’s criticism ‘unfair’ after claims its report compromised caravan investigation

Jan 30, 2025 | Press Release

 

Albanese says national security committee met this morning over explosive-laden caravan

Anthony Albanese would not be drawn on when he was first made aware of the Dural caravan discovery.

Speaking with media in Melbourne, the prime minister said:

I get briefed regularly by the national security agencies. We don’t talk about operational matters obviously, for obvious reasons. What I do is I don’t comment on operational matters.

There are two issues that are my priority. The first is making sure that people are kept safe. The second, which is related to that, is making sure that any investigations aren’t undermined and that the police and national security agencies are able to do their work.

I get ongoing briefings every day, I get a national security briefing and indeed just this morning we had a full meeting of the National Security Committee

Asked whether he fears “we could see a deadly attack in the coming weeks and months” on ABC News Breakfast, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:

We know from the counter-terrorism teams that they consider this to have been a potential mass casualty event. That is obviously an extraordinarily serious development and this is why we’re working so closely with them and with the states and territories.

We know that fear is not entirely unfounded when we see developments like this. We’re making sure that whatever can be done will be done and we’ll be briefed on this later this morning.

Some of the fear that Jewish Australians have is not unfounded. There is absolutely no place for violence or for antisemitism in a country like ours and that’s why we’re working closer than ever with police and other authorities to make sure that we stamp out and root out this antisemitism which is unfortunately becoming a feature all too frequently in our communities.

PM vows perpetrators of thwarted antisemitic plot will be ‘hunted down and locked up’

Anthony Albanese says it is “critical” police are able to investigate explosives and antisemitic material found in a caravan abandoned in Dural earlier this month.

“It remains an active one. We know that some people are in custody over issues related to this investigation,” the prime minister said in Melbourne.

There’s zero tolerance in Australia for hatred and for antisemitism, and I want any perpetrators to be hunted down and locked up. It’s as simple as that.

They have no place in this sort of engagement. It’s designed to create fear and terror in the community and it will not succeed, because our community is stronger than the cowards who engage in this sort of activity.