Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 1: Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to
Speaker 1: the Daily OS. It's Thursday, the twenty third of January.
Speaker 2: I'm Billy, I'm emma.
Speaker 1: There have been several anti Semitic attacks in Sydney in
Speaker 1: the past three months, which has led to governments and police,
Speaker 1: as well as leaders of other faiths uniting to condemn,
Speaker 1: investigate and press charges against those responsible. This week, Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Albanesi announced a national database to track antismitic
Speaker 1: crime following a meeting with the National Cabinet. At the
Speaker 1: same time, the Australian Federal Police has announced it is
Speaker 1: investigating if overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals
Speaker 1: in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in
Speaker 1: our suburbs. Well tell you what you need to know
Speaker 1: in today's podcast, Billy.
Speaker 2: Like you said, there have been several anti Semitic attacks
Speaker 2: in Sydney, even in Melbourne in recent months. We've seen
Speaker 2: a real increase in these kinds of hate crimes. It's
Speaker 2: moved into a national conversation now which we're going to
Speaker 2: unpack today. But what's the latest on these attacks? There
Speaker 2: was more this week. What can you tell us?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So on Tuesday, just before one am so overnight,
Speaker 1: emergency services were called to a childcare center in Marubra. Now,
Speaker 1: for those who are not familiar, Marubra is a suburb
Speaker 1: in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, which is where many
Speaker 1: of these anti Semitic attacks have taken place, and the
Speaker 1: Eastern suburbs is also where a lot of Sydney's Jewish
Speaker 1: population live. Now, the childcare center was near a synagogue
Speaker 1: and it was lit on fire, and the center's walls
Speaker 1: also had anti Semitic graffiti spray painted on and police
Speaker 1: has said that of course you know, there was a fire,
Speaker 1: there was extensive down image to the building, and that
Speaker 1: childcare center remains closed today.
Speaker 2: And that childcare center, I think it's important to add,
Speaker 2: is a non denominational center. It's not. It was not
Speaker 2: a Jewish childcare center. It was not a particular religious center.
Speaker 2: It just happened to be located next to a synagogue exactly.
Speaker 1: And an investigation into who is responsible for that attack
Speaker 1: is now underway by New South Wales police. After this
Speaker 1: happened in the morning of Tuesday, New South Wales Premier
Speaker 1: Chris Mins held a press conference saying these antisemitic attacks
Speaker 1: are the opposite of the kind of country that we
Speaker 1: all want to live in. And he was standing next
Speaker 1: to Prime Minister Anthony Alberzi during that press conference, who
Speaker 1: also added, this is a place for children and families
Speaker 1: and it should never have been denigrated by this despicable
Speaker 1: and horrifying crime. And like we've mentioned, Emma, this was
Speaker 1: the latest in a string of attacks. This was not
Speaker 1: an isolated incident. There have been eight similar attacks on
Speaker 1: buildings and in Sydney in the past three months.
Speaker 2: You've mentioned there is this ongoing investigation by police into
Speaker 2: that attack on the daycare center. Where are police up
Speaker 2: to overall with these string of offenses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there are multiple different they call them operations
Speaker 1: or strike forces that have been set up both at
Speaker 1: the New South Wales Police Force level and then also
Speaker 1: at the Australian Federal police level. I'll go through New
Speaker 1: South Wales Police first. So they have set up strike
Speaker 1: Force per last December to investigate these anti Smitic attacks.
Speaker 1: Since then, nine people have been charged, and that includes
Speaker 1: one person who was charged yesterday for allegedly setting fire
Speaker 1: to a synagogue in Newtown, which is also a suburban Sydney,
Speaker 1: and that happened earlier this month. Now, that person appeared
Speaker 1: in court yesterday and was denied bail. And then at
Speaker 1: the federal police level, the AFP, they also set up
Speaker 1: an operation in December to investigate anti semitism, and since
Speaker 1: that operation was established, there have been one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty six reports of anti semitism, with fifteen under investigation
Speaker 1: and one person arrested.
Speaker 2: We did hear from New South Walest Premier Chris Mins
Speaker 2: this week. He had very strong language in his condemnation
Speaker 2: of this daycare attack and he gave us a bit
Speaker 2: of an update on those charges and investigations as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: and several of the people arrested across the board have
Speaker 2: been refused bail, and he seems to be wanting to
Speaker 2: make it very clear that investigators are taking this very seriously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, police and government officials have both said multiple times
Speaker 1: that the perpetrators of these crimes will face the full
Speaker 1: force of the law. That is a phrase that we
Speaker 1: have heard a lot when talking about these crimes. And
Speaker 1: like I mentioned before, this is certainly not an issue
Speaker 1: that is just isolated to New South Wales. Even there
Speaker 1: have also been arrests in Victoria, but certainly most of
Speaker 1: the recent attacks have been in Sydney.
Speaker 2: And so this kind of all culminated in this announcement
Speaker 2: on Tuesday that there would be a snap national Cabinet meeting.
Speaker 2: National Cabinet was convened. What do we know about that meeting?
Speaker 2: What came from it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, for anyone not familiar with National Cabinet, it is
Speaker 1: a meeting of all of the state and territory leaders.
Speaker 1: The name is kind of confusing because it is separate
Speaker 1: to the government's cabinet, which is all of the federal
Speaker 1: government's most senior ministers. So there's that government cabinet, and
Speaker 1: then completely separate to that, there is this National Cabinet
Speaker 1: with the leaders of the state territory governments and also
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister. And this is when the Prime Minister
Speaker 1: and of course the leaders of the states and territories
Speaker 1: get together to discuss a matter of significant concern to
Speaker 1: the nation. And it was actually first organized in the
Speaker 1: early days of the COVID pandemic, and it's been called
Speaker 1: kind of periodically ever since whenever there is a nationwide
Speaker 1: issue that leaders want to address together.
Speaker 2: I can remember one of the more recent national Cabinet
Speaker 2: meetings being about addressing the domestic violence crisis in the
Speaker 2: country as an example of what kind of the threshold
Speaker 2: is for national cabinet to be assembled.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I always find it surprising that they
Speaker 1: didn't have this prior to the pandemic. Yeah, it feels
Speaker 1: like a really necessary thing for them to have. But
Speaker 1: back to this, So on Tuesday, the Prime Minister called
Speaker 1: this meeting and what came from that is the announcement
Speaker 1: that there will be a new national database to better
Speaker 1: inform and coordinate responses to anti Semitic incidents. Now, this
Speaker 1: is on top of a number of previous announcements the
Speaker 1: federal government has made over the past few months, mostly
Speaker 1: around increased funding for police and security around Jewish institutions. Now,
Speaker 1: in terms of this announcement on Tuesday, there wasn't really
Speaker 1: that much detail provided beyond the fact that there will
Speaker 1: be this new database. But my understanding is that it
Speaker 1: will be similar to how last year the government announced
Speaker 1: a National Day Database for domestic violence, which was also
Speaker 1: done to bring together all of the data of each
Speaker 1: individual state and territory in one place, and the idea
Speaker 1: is that that database can then help inform new policies
Speaker 1: and it can also help law enforcement develop the most
Speaker 1: effective measures to combat the issue. So there is kind
Speaker 1: of precedence around having this one national database for a
Speaker 1: significant issue, and.
Speaker 2: It can be confusing and often trends missed when police
Speaker 2: at a state level are dealing with their own investigations
Speaker 2: and it's not until we kind of zoom out nationally
Speaker 2: that you can start to connect the dots. So at
Speaker 2: the same time as national Cabinet canven to come to
Speaker 2: announce this database, the AFP also announced and that's the
Speaker 2: Australian Federal Police. It also announced that it was looking
Speaker 2: into whether overseas actors could be involved in these attacks.
Speaker 2: And I think this is a really interesting part of
Speaker 2: the story and perhaps a headline. We weren't expecting, Billy,
Speaker 2: what are we talking about when we say overseas actors?
Speaker 1: So we don't know too much detail. I would say
Speaker 1: that they did keep their cards quite close to their chest,
Speaker 1: but basically what they said is they're investigating whether individuals
Speaker 1: or potentially groups are coordinating these attacks and potentially paying
Speaker 1: people in Australia to carry out these antismitic attacks.
Speaker 2: So groups or individuals overseas potentially coordinating with people here
Speaker 2: on the ground in Australia. So they're investigating the idea
Speaker 2: that these attacks might not just be within the Australian community,
Speaker 2: but there's something more sinister internationally at.
Speaker 1: Play exactly, And they said that one line of inquiry
Speaker 1: they're looking at is if young people are being intentionally
Speaker 1: radicalized online by these potential overseas actors and then being
Speaker 1: encouraged to commit anti Semitic attacks. They're also looking into
Speaker 1: how possible payment could have been made, including if cryptocurrency
Speaker 1: has been used.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting because of course we're talking more and
Speaker 2: hearing more and more about online extremism radicalization, but I
Speaker 2: think sometimes that feels like a really far away concept.
Speaker 2: So to hear in real time how a national investigation
Speaker 2: might be looking into the use of that radicalization online
Speaker 2: playing out in this way is really concerning, of course,
Speaker 2: but so interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It kind of speaks to this new age of
Speaker 1: crime that we are clearly in and how the Internet
Speaker 1: or different types of you know, evolving technologies are being
Speaker 1: weaponized to carry out crime. Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi also
Speaker 1: commented on this yesterday, he said that he was reluctant
Speaker 1: to provide too much detail out of concern that it
Speaker 1: could compromise their investigations, but he said that it would
Speaker 1: appear that some of these attacks are being perpetrated by
Speaker 1: people and this is a quote, who don't have a
Speaker 1: particular issue, aren't motivated by an ideology, but paid actors. Again,
Speaker 1: they haven't confirmed that that is just a line of investigation,
Speaker 1: but that is what they've told us is where they're
Speaker 1: focusing their energy at the moment.
Speaker 2: So we've seen this spate of anti Semitic attacks arise
Speaker 2: in anti semitism across the country in recent months, but
Speaker 2: Sydney's also dealt with increased Islamophobia, is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is also really important to mention. So
Speaker 1: at the same time as police conduct investigations into these
Speaker 1: anti Semitic attacks, they are also investigating a recent incident
Speaker 1: in Wiley Park, which is a suburb of southwestern Sydney.
Speaker 1: So on the seventeenth of January last week, at a
Speaker 1: supermarket that stocks Lebanese groceries, a wall was vandalized with
Speaker 1: Islamophobic graffiti and those investigations into that incident are still ongoing.
Speaker 1: And that was also not an isolated incident. There has
Speaker 1: been other Islamophobic graffiti that has been spray painted in Sydney.
Speaker 1: For example, last December police investigated islamophobic graffiti in chester Hill. So,
Speaker 1: like you said, Emma, Sydney has also dealt with Islamophobia.
Speaker 1: And there has been this wave of religious hate crime
Speaker 1: and it has seen religious leaders from many faiths come
Speaker 1: together to condemn all religiously motivated hate crimes.
Speaker 2: With this concern around it increase in these hate crimes,
Speaker 2: religiously motivated, racially motivated. How has the federal government responded
Speaker 2: at a community level?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So last year the federal government announced two new
Speaker 1: appointments the special roles. Now, a special envoy is someone
Speaker 1: who advises the government on a particular area and advocates
Speaker 1: for a specific cause or group of people. So in
Speaker 1: July last year, lawyer Gillian Siegel was announced as Australia's
Speaker 1: first Special Envoy to combat anti Semitism. At the time,
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Albernizi said Seagull's role is designed to
Speaker 1: help Jewishes Stralians feel safe and included. In response to
Speaker 1: rising anti semitism since the Israel Hamas War. Began and
Speaker 1: then in September after Malik was announced as a Special
Speaker 1: Envoy to combat Islamophobia in Australia. Now, Malik, who worked
Speaker 1: in the New South Wales Premier's department for over a decade,
Speaker 1: said he doesn't intend to quote advocate that one form
Speaker 1: of hatred is more important than another. Both anti Semitism
Speaker 1: and Islamophobia are unacceptable and both appointments will serve three
Speaker 1: year terms and report to the PM.
Speaker 2: Billy, thank you so much for breaking that down for
Speaker 2: us today and explaining everything that's going on in Sydney
Speaker 2: around Australia. Of course, this is a story that is
Speaker 2: seemingly evolving by the day. We will continue to keep
Speaker 2: you guys updated whatever comes next, and especially as we
Speaker 2: hear more from National Cabinet on this one. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Ours.
Speaker 2: If you learned something, please feel free to share it
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Speaker 2: on today with your evening headlines. Until then, have a
Speaker 2: good day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon. And I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calkatin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges
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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.