Minns responds to Royal Commission interim report

NSW Premier Chris Minns has said the state government failed in its highest responsibility to protect its people, pledging to implement in full all recommendations from the Royal Commission’s interim report into the Bondi Beach massacre.

“The reality for a state government is that its highest responsibility is to protect its people. And on December 14 last year, we didn’t do that,” Minns said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“We take responsibility for that today, and as I said, do everything we can to change and ensure we confront evil and terrorism wherever it is in New South Wales and wherever it rears its head.”

The interim report revealed NSW Police allocated three general duties officers and one supervisor to the Chanukah by the Sea event, with the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command Commander attending at “various times”.

Community Security Group NSW had assessed the threat level as “high” on December 8 and requested police deployment “for the entirety of the event”, noting that “a terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish community is likely and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification”.

The report noted differences between information provided by CSG NSW and NSW Police about their communications regarding security arrangements “cannot be resolved on the information presently available to the Commission” and would require further inquiry.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the force had worked closely with CSG in the lead-up to the event and that a risk assessment was undertaken, though the report stated there was no written risk assessment.

“Police that are on the ground are best placed to make a decision on the risk that’s there. They work very closely with CSG. Police do that on a daily basis. They are professionals in assessing risk. I’ll support my commander’s ability to make decisions,” Lanyon said.

Asked about the discrepancy between CSG and police accounts, Lanyon said: “That is something the royal commissioner has indicated that she will examine under evidence, and I think it’s appropriate to let it go to that process.”

Minns said antisemitism and the rise of antisemitism “didn’t begin on December 14”.

“There was a rising tide of hatred towards the Jewish community in the years before that day … this was incubated in hatred, and that has to be part of the conversation about ensuring it never happens again,” he said.

The Premier said it “breaks your heart to think that the same community that’s subject to the worst terrorism event in the country’s history” was still the target of hatred and violence.

“Part of that can be confronted with government action, bans, interventions when it comes to protest, gun law reform, part of it is civic society stepping up and saying, when we see racism and antisemitism, we’re not going to cop it. We won’t tolerate it,” Minns said.

“This doesn’t begin and end with someone going to Bondi on December 14. There’s a radicalisation element here that does involve heightened tensions and a wave of hatred to the Jewish community in the preceding two years.

“We saw that days after October 7 with what was a violent mob on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. And we’ve been dealing with that. We’ve been dealing with that sentiment in our community almost on a weekly basis for years.”

Minns also praised emergency service workers, saying: “While there’s absolutely learnings from this commission inquiry for processes and procedures changes to the law, it is also the truth that emergency service workers, in particular the police and the paramedics, did an incredible job in difficult circumstances.”

“Some of them put their lives on the line to protect complete strangers, and I don’t want it lost in any of the committee’s findings or recommendations, the incredible job and the heroism that they did.”

Two NSW Police officers suffered significant injuries during the attack.

Lanyon acknowledged the recommendations and said NSW Police was “committed to implementing any recommendations that impact on the agency”.

“The New South Wales Police Force is an agency that continues to improve. We strive to make sure that everything we do leads to a safer community,” he said.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the government had wanted its own NSW royal commission “from the very beginning” because of the importance of “a deep investigation into the worst terror attack that we have ever seen on our shores”.

“Losing our citizens in the way that we did in a terrorist event here at Bondi Beach, that will be something that will be with all of us forever, and we never want to see that happen again. So we want to make sure that we learn from that,” Catley said.

Minns said the government had introduced gun law reform, protest law reform and legislation relating to terrorist symbols since the attack.

“We can’t do anything about yesterday. We have to do everything possible about tomorrow to bring about the kind of change to the law and the culture in our community to stop hate from spilling into violence in Australia’s largest city,” he said.

Asked whether, in retrospect, more police should have been deployed, Minns said: “If we’d known what was going to happen, we would have put an army down there. That’s the truth, and didn’t happen, and that’s what we live with now.”

“I’d give anything to have that day back. I’d give anything to have massive amounts of police resources, but we didn’t have the benefit of hindsight then.”

The Premier also expressed hope other states would follow NSW’s lead on gun law reform: “It would be better if it was introduced everywhere, but if it’s not, at least New South Wales will have the strongest firearm laws in the country.”