Premier considering military deployment to protect Jewish sites
NSW Premier Chris Minns has flagged possible army deployment to guard Jewish institutions, while also announcing police would be armed with long-arm weapons on New Year's Eve.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has revealed discussions are underway about deploying army troops on Sydney streets to protect the Jewish community following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, while also announcing his government is “actively” considering whether the Community Security Group (CSG) should be armed.
“While there were police on site, it was clearly not enough to deal with the threat, as history has tragically shown,” Minns said.
“It’s one of the reasons why we need a royal commission, to get the information and to provide it to government, so that we can make the changes to keep the community safe.
“Now that means a root-and-branch change to security protocols and provisions in place. It also means we need to have a longer, deeper look at arming CSG.
“That is a step that we haven’t taken in the past, but the truth of the matter is, when it comes to ensuring that the community, the Jewish community, in this case, feels safe within their own community when they have community events, we need to be able to show and demonstrate that there is going to be security in place to deal with the threat.”
On Sunday Minns visited Bondi along with Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh and Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper to encourage visitors to return to Bondi to support local businesses.
He confirmed talks were occurring about calling in national armed forces to guard sites such as Jewish schools and synagogues after the Australia’s worst terror attack.
“We’re in discussions about it,” he told a press conference, when asked specifically about army deployment.
“I’m not prepared to front run it, because obviously that’s a change for us, but I’m just flagging with everyone, I’m not going to rule anything out.”
“We’re going to look very closely at security programs and measures in the future. We have to do things completely differently. The situation as it currently stands, it can’t continue,” he said.
“We’ve seen the … tragic effects, of what hate does, particularly antisemitic hate, to our Jewish community.
“There’s a big challenge ahead of us to rebuild Jewish life in Sydney. So I’m not going to take anything off the table.”
Minns also announced police would be armed with long-arm weapons on New Year’s Eve.
“We haven’t normally seen on the streets of Sydney, long-armed firearms, but NSW Police will have them, and that will be confronting for some people. But the truth is, we want to make sure that they’re in a position to send a message that security is the No.1 obligation of any government,” he said.
Despite heightened security concerns, Minns urged Sydneysiders to “thumb your nose at the terrorists” by attending New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The premier said the attackers aimed to fracture the community and disrupt everyday life, but he called on locals to celebrate December 31 as an act of “defiance”.
“We have to show defiance by going out and spending time with family and friends over the New Year period,” Mr Minns said at a press conference on Sunday.
“Because of the weird ideology of some of these terrorists, what they want is for us to crawl up into a ball and not have fun with our family and friends.
“I’m calling on the people of Sydney to step out, to do what you would ordinarily do, to thumb your nose at the terrorists.”
Minns said residents could demonstrate that “we will not be cowed by these terrorists”.
Waverley Mayor Nemesh also urged people to return to Bondi Beach to support local businesses struggling in the attack’s aftermath.
“When the terrorist attack unfolded, our local businesses became refuges and safe havens… Now it is our turn to back our local businesses,” Nemesh said.
The Bondi Beach attack, which targeted a Jewish Chanukah celebration, killed 15 people and injured more than 40.
Minns has also defended his decision to suppress protests, arguing demonstrations could “let demons out of the jug” and fuel antisemitism.
Speaking at Sunday’s press conference, Minns addressed concerns that limiting public demonstrations could allow hatred to fester behind closed doors.
“I understand the argument, I’m not oblivious to it, I know that it’s been made by critics of the government, but I reject it,” Minns said.
“I’d put it down as the ‘let a little bit of steam out of the kettle’ theory, which is (that) if people have these views, maybe it’s better that they are expressed in a limited form.
“I think what it actually does is it adds to the slippery slope of inflammatory rhetoric that ends up scaling up the more it occurs, and we’ve seen that over the last two years.
“In actual fact, you’re letting demons out of the jug and it’s very difficult to put them back in.”
The comments follow Minns’ decision to ban the chant “globalise the intifada” and other statements he has described as hate speech.
“We are now in a situation where repeated statements said over and over again add momentum to hate in our community,” he said.
“(It) ends up getting to the point where someone says – in order to best the previous speaker – something that’s hateful and antisemitic in our community.”
Under the new framework, police can ban marches on public roads for an initial 14-day period, with extensions allowing restrictions to remain for up to three months.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon invoked the powers on Thursday, imposing temporary protest bans in several policing areas.
Minns said he supported the move, describing the powers as “absolutely essential in keeping order and peace during this Christmas period and through the summer”.
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