3 hours ago
Surviving Bondi shooter still in hospital but will likely face charges, police say
NSW police are providing another update from Sydney, alongside NSW premier Chris Minns.
NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, says he’s visited the families and officers who were injured yesterday.
He says there are more than 320 police officers who have been sent out to protect members of the Jewish community.
This is a time that police will take action to make sure the community feels safe. This is not what we expect in New South Wales. These types of actions. What we saw yesterday is abhorrent, we have taken firm action, we are keen to make sure the community now heals.
Lanyon says he doesn’t want to prejudice any justice process, but that one of the alleged gunmen – the 24-year-old – is in hospital and that, “based on his medical condition, it’s likely that person may face criminal charges.”
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Melissa Davey
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said in a statement that the organisation is “shocked and dismayed by the violent terror attack committed last night during a celebration of Hanukkah at Bondi”.
Federal AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said doctors across the country were horrified by the deplorable attacks and had expressed their deep sorrow for all the victims and their families.
We are so deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life and the injuries inflicted on so many people who were innocently celebrating at a Hanukkah event.
The many injured, both physically and mentally, will be cared for by our colleagues with compassion and empathy.
McMullen praised the many healthcare workers and first responders who treated and cared for victims.
This is an incredibly challenging time for the many first responders and healthcare workers who have been confronted with the impacts of this attack and may have to deal with those impacts for a long time to come.
We stand by to offer our support to them as they deal with those impacts. It will be a long road for many. We stand by our Jewish communities as they, with our support, deal with the immediate impacts and the aftermath.
McMullen said the AMA condemned violence and hatred and the division these kinds of attacks seek to sow.
We condemn terrorism, and we stand with all those who are calling for a safe Australia, free of division and persecution … If people need to talk, there is help available, including for doctors through the Drs4Drs service, which offers independent, free, safe, supportive and confidential services across Australia.
Minns has flagged he will push to tighten gun laws in the aftermath of the Bondi shooting, that has killed 16 people – including the gunman – and left 38 people in hospital with injuries.
Minns says the laws “need to change and they can change”, but won’t say yet what that legislation might look like.
It means introducing a bill to Parliament to - to be really blunt, making it more difficult to get these horrifying weapons that have no practical use in our community. If you’re not a farmer, you’re not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons to put the public in danger and make life dangerous and difficult for New South Wales police.
So, I understand - of course I understand the genuine desire to have information about how the law will change, we’re less than than 24 hours into this horrifying crime. I want to make sure that legislation and reform that we bring to Parliament makes a big difference. But that’s entirely my intention and my colleagues feel the same way.
Minns says granting firearms licenses in perpetuity is no fit for purpose, and will look to restrict firearms further for the general public.
We need to make sure the firearms legislation in New South Wales is fit for purpose. That does mean restricting firearms for the general public, for the people of New South Wales. You don’t need them on New South Wales streets.
Lanyon isn’t able to provide any more details about the two alleged shooters. He confirmed during a press conference earlier this morning that the two were father and son.
The father, a 50-year-old man, has held a firearms license since 2015, police said.
We are very much working through the background of both persons. At this stage we know very little about them.
Lanyon says police are trawling through CCTV footage, social media to try and find more details.
Asked whether information sharing between the federal police and NSW police on counter-terrorism has improved, Lanyon says:
I think both organisations work very closely together and very well. It’s too premature in relation to this specific incident to talk about the information sharing. The AFP and the New South Wales police work within joint counter-terrorism arrangements. We’re committed as both agencies, I have spoken to the Federal Police commissioner, to make sure we work closely together we keep the community safer so I’m very confident that both agencies are working together.
Officers were stationed around Bondi beach area at the time of the attack, commissioner says
Mal Lanyon says police have taken the Jewish community’s safety very seriously, and said response by emergency services last night were prompt.
The NSW police commissioner says there were police who were stationed around the event.
They were taskings, so officers are continually going through the location. There were officers there at the time when the incident occurred.
Asked whether there should have been more police officers stationed at Bondi beach during the Hanukah event, Lanyon says there was no specific intelligence related to the incident before it took place.
He pushes back against criticism that police didn’t go in fast enough in response to the gunfire.
I think anyone who has seen the footage will have seen police going forward to take positive action. It would have been an incredibly chaotic and terrifying scene. Even for well trained police officers. The fact that two persons had long-arms and were indiscriminately firing them says the act of bravery about going forward is something we should all celebrate.
One of alleged shooters was 'entitled' to carry a weapon under NSW law, police say, as Minns flags reforms
Premier Chris Minns says the NSW government is looking at potential reforms to gun laws, when asked how a man in “suburbia” was able to have six licensed firearms.
I think it’s time we have a change to the law in relation to the firearms legislation in New South Wales. But I’m not ready to announce it today. We want to make sure that prospective reform and change in New South Wales has a lasting impact. You can expect action soon.
The police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, says the firearms registry conducts a “thorough examination” of all firearms applications. The 50-year-old man, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, held a gun licence which police say permitted him to have “the long arms he had”.
There are two types of hunting licence, the act to hunt on a property or also as part of a hunting club. So a gun club. He was a member of a gun club and was entitled by nature of the Firearms Act to have a firearms licence issued.
Lanyon is asked whether the firearms registry would have spoken to national security agencies before approving the gun licence. Lanyon says:
Depending on the nature of it, that’s very much under investigation. We want to understand whether the person was and certainly by criteria he was eligible to hold a firearms licence. We do take into account all intelligence that’s available.
Premier welcomes 'massive' lines at blood donation services, promises 'overwhelming' response
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says the shooting is being met with an “overwhelming” response from authorities and the community.
He says he encourages the public to lay flowers at a memorial site that was established at Bondi pavilion this morning, and says it’s also encouraging to see record inquiries and “massive lines” at blood donation services.
This is a shocking act of violence, and it needs to be met with an overwhelming government, community and police response. Operation Shelter will be overwhelming.
It may be inconvenient for people in the coming days, but we need to send a clear message to the people of this state and those in the affected community that have seen so much violence and damage that New South Wales police are there to protect them, to keep them safe, and that they’ve got every right to celebrate their faith and enjoy this festive period free from the profound worry and sadness associated with this horrible violence.
Minns will attend a NSW crisis cabinet meeting this afternoon, which he says will continue to meet daily, as well as meetings of the national cabinet which will also be attended by national security officials.
Surviving Bondi shooter still in hospital but will likely face charges, police say
NSW police are providing another update from Sydney, alongside NSW premier Chris Minns.
NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, says he’s visited the families and officers who were injured yesterday.
He says there are more than 320 police officers who have been sent out to protect members of the Jewish community.
This is a time that police will take action to make sure the community feels safe. This is not what we expect in New South Wales. These types of actions. What we saw yesterday is abhorrent, we have taken firm action, we are keen to make sure the community now heals.
Lanyon says he doesn’t want to prejudice any justice process, but that one of the alleged gunmen – the 24-year-old – is in hospital and that, “based on his medical condition, it’s likely that person may face criminal charges.”
How NSW gun numbers exploded to more than 1m in the past 20 years
Anne Davies
Successive state governments in NSW have had an ambivalent approach to gun control over the past two decades since Port Arthur prompted an Australia-wide crackdown.
The reason is the power of the pro-gun lobby in NSW represented in parliament by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, which holds key numbers in the state’s upper house.
The single-issue party may only hold two seats in the Legislative Council, but they are often crucial to getting legislation through, particularly when there is opposition from the progressives on the crossbench.
The Shooters have also made inroads in the lower house by winning regional seats or coming close, usually at the expense of the NSW s.
In the past six months, the Minns Labor government has demonstrated its susceptibility to the shooting lobby by openly entertaining support for a private member’s bill that proposed a right to hunt and would have allowed recreational hunting in state forests and crown lands.
After pushback from victims’ groups and Walter Mikac, whose children Alannah and Madeleine were killed at Port Arthur, Chris Minns balked at enshrining the right to hunt, and changes that would have allowed the use of silencers and night vision goggles (which were opposed by NSW police as well).
The premier eventually also said no to a hunting authority (even though it was in the state budget), which many feared would lead to a government-funded lobby group for hunters. But Minns was still toying with allowing the bill to be debated in government time as late as a few weeks ago.
There has certainly been no debate about clamping down on guns in NSW over the past decade, despite some high-profile incidents.
The result of NSW’s approach has been an explosion in gun numbers – which now total over 1m across the state. Over 258,000 people hold firearms licences. Most list recreational hunting of feral animals as the reason for their licence. The number held by primary producers – often cited as why guns are needed – is a small fraction in comparison.
Tom McIlroy
Penny Wong thanks US secretary of state for messages of support
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has spoken to her US counterpart, secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The pair discussed the terrorist attack in Bondi and the subsequent investigation on Monday.
Wong thanked Rubio for messages of support from the US to Australia’s Jewish community, including from the president, Donald Trump.
Wong and Rubio discussed the courage of Sydneysiders caught up in the attack, including Ahmed Al Ahmed, the man who risked his life to disarm one of the shooters.
“I thanked Secretary Rubio for his condolences, for his solidarity with Australia and the Australian Jewish community and for his message of support from the American people,” Wong said.
There is no place for this antisemitism, violence and terrorism in our nation. We are determined to eradicate it.
‘The walls of our community have been destroyed, but we have to rebuild’: ECAJ co-CEO
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, is with David Ossip and reflects on the death of the 10-year-old girl overnight in hospital, saying it compounds the community’s grief.
“The walls of our community have been destroyed, but we have to rebuild,” Ryvchin says.
He says security agencies are made up of incredible men and women, but there have been failures to detect attacks against the Jewish community – including last night’s shooting and the firebombing of a synagogue in 2024 – before they happened.
We’ve seen it as Jewish people in generation after generation after generation, when antisemitism takes root in a society. It’s not a passing hatred and idle bigotry. It becomes a quest, a mission. It becomes an obsession which leads people to do most inhuman acts. We know this, and we sought to educate the leaders of this country, wider society, because we know where this leads. We know how it rips the country apart, and frankly, we won’t listen to it.
Federal government ‘very slow to come to grips’ with antisemitism, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president says
David Ossip says the federal government has made “missteps” on antisemitism, and was too slow to come to grips with the issue.
He says the responsibility of government is to protect its citizens, which he says didn’t happen on Sunday night.
There’s been an immense failure and an investigation needs to come to grips with how that was allowed to take place. But there’s no two ways about it – the federal government was very slow to come to grips with this issue. We haven’t seen the leadership at a federal level that we have at a state level. Now, more than ever, it is the moment. If we’re not going to step now and deal with this for the crisis that it is, when are we?
Earlier this morning, Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, said Jewish people had faced dehumanisation and minimisation over the last two years. Ossip says he agrees with Burns:
The Jewish community has been through hell over the past two years, and notwithstanding all of that, there have still been individuals who have sought to undermine our lived experience, and that has to stop as well.
President of NSW Jewish Board of Deputies urges ‘strong, unequivocal and overwhelming leadership’
David Ossip, the NSW Jewish board of deputies president, is speaking to the media from Bondi Beach.
He says the shooting of yesterday shows “antisemitism has well and truly found a place here in our beloved country”, and urges the government to take strong action.
What we’ve seen has been the logical progression demonising Jews with rhetoric which slowly builds up to acts of violence …
The world is looking at Sydney and our country as one of the global epicentres of antisemitism, and now, after two years, this is a moment [for] strong, unequivocal and overwhelming leadership. The time for talk is over. We need action to those who have said over the past two years that antisemitism has no place in Australia.
Sussan Ley visits scene of Bondi beach attack
Opposition leader Sussan Ley is at Bondi beach in Sydney, visiting the scene with shadow home affairs minister Jonathon Duniam and shadow ministers Julian Leeser and Andrew Bragg.
Ley, Duniam and Leeser spoke to the media earlier, where the opposition leader accused the government and Anthony Albanese of allowing antisemitism to “fester” in the community.
They speak with Jewish community leader Alex Ryvchin.
Tory Shepherd
Bondi attack shows urgent need for national firearms register, expert says
Australia still does not have a unified mechanism for tracking firearms across jurisdictions, Swinburne law and criminology expert Maya Arguello says.
The concept has existed since the post-Port Arthur reforms in 1996, she said, but is not expected to be operational until 2028.
Arguello said:
In February, it was reported that more than four million firearms are legally owned in Australia.
Without a national register to support real-time information-sharing, police and other agencies remain dependent on separate state and territory systems, resulting in gaps in life-cycle monitoring, tracing, and national oversight of registered firearms.
Tory Shepherd
Imams council says ‘violent terrorist act’ is ‘act on all Australians’
The Australian Imams Council says the “violent terrorist act constitutes an attack on all Australians”. It said in a statement it “unequivocally” condemns terrorism, violence, and the targeting of civilians in all its forms:
Antisemitism, expressed through hate, harassment and violence directed at the Jewish community, has no place in our society.
We unequivocally reject these acts and reaffirm our shared responsibility to uphold respect, safety, and dignity for all communities in Australia.
