The prime minister is being urged to divulge more information about the potential of foreign actors paying local criminals to carry out antisemitic attacks in Australia.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Reece Kershaw briefed state and territory leaders virtually at a meeting of the National Cabinet on Tuesday over efforts to stamp out a rise in antisemitism.
He said while the there is intelligence to suggest Australians have been paid using cryptocurrencies by overseas actors to execute hate crimes domestically.
The cabinet meeting, during which leaders agreed to a new national database that would track antisemitic crimes, came after a childcare centre in Sydney’s Maroubra was set alight and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Patterson said the revelations of foreign interference were a “gravely serious claim” as he demanded transparency from the government around their actions.
“I think the Australian people are entitled to more information from the prime minister today about what he knows about this, when he was briefed about it, and what action the government is taking about us,” he told ABC RN Breakfast.
Paterson said if the intelligence is correct and foreign governments or organisations were behind a spate of attacks on the Australian Jewish community, then it would be “the most serious domestic security crisis in peacetime in Australia’s history”.
The Opposition had repeatedly accused the federal government of inaction following a series of antisemitic crimes in recent months, including an and have called for mandatory jail terms to deter further crimes.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected claims his government had been slow to act as he remained tight-lipped about details of the AFP’s “ongoing” investigations.
“I’m reluctant to say anything that compromises those investigations, but it is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“It would appear, as the AFP commissioner said yesterday, that some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors. Now it’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from.”
Repeating his calls for unity, Albanese said: “What we need to do is to bring the country together, not look for difference, not look for division, not look for political advantage. We need to bring the country together because we are overwhelmingly a harmonious society.”
The federal government set up a dedicated antisemitism taskforce called Operation Avalite, including investigators from the AFP and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, following the synagogue attack in Melbourne.
Kershaw revealed on Tuesday that Operation Avalite is investigating 15 serious allegations and had received 166 crime reports.
‘What are you waiting for?’: Israeli government criticises ‘inaction’
The Israeli government has joined criticisms of the Albanese government’s handling of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Speaking to ABC News, Israeli’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said the government must replace words with actions to protect the Jewish community.
“Words are not enough. The Jewish community needs actions, you know?” she said.
“And only through that — through investigation, prosecution — you have to fight it. I mean, what are they waiting for? For someone to die? For someone to be murdered?”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke rejected the criticism as “simply not right” and defended the government’s actions, including the appointment of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal.
