Plain nasty’: PM, Dutton’s tense anti-Semitism clash
The leaders of Australia’s two major parties have again clashed over increasing anti-Semitic attacks as counter-terror police investigate more incidents.
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese have clashed again over blame for rising anti-Semitic crime. Pic:AAP
The two men vying to be prime minister have escalated their war of words over who is to blame for rising anti-Semitic crime after the latest attack on a Jewish place of worship.
Specialist counter-terrorism police have been called in to catch those behind the spray-painting of swastikas and an arson attempt on Newtown Synagogue, in Sydney’s inner west, on Saturday.
Those incidents followed recent vandalism of synagogues, cars and houses, including in Sydney’s east which is home to a large Jewish community.
After Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claimed every anti-Semitic incident could be traced back to the prime minister’s purported failure to take action, Anthony Albanese lashed back on Monday and said his political rival was “just plain nasty”.
The coalition has repeatedly taken aim at Labor’s response to the incidents, claiming the government has failed to strengthen anti-hate laws and been too slow getting the Australian Federal Police to set up an anti-Semitism task force.
But the prime minister said the issue should not be used as an opportunity for political division and Mr Dutton should acknowledge “anyone of any decency opposes anti-Semitism”.
“Everything is a political opportunity for Peter Dutton, rather than an attempt to bring the country together on something that surely we all agree on,” he told ABC radio.
Speaking a day after the de-facto start of his party’s election campaign, Mr Dutton said a coalition government could legislate tougher sentences for anti-Semitic attacks if elected.
He accused Mr Albanese of doing “next to zero” to combat the problem, pledging he would deliver a “very heavy response” to any incidents that targeted the Jewish community.
“We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism,” he said.
His comments came after Federal Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, on Sunday called for national cabinet to convene on the issue and for mandatory jail terms for crimes against synagogues and Jewish community spaces.
Acting NSW Premier Penny Sharpe said she was confident counter-terrorism police had the resources and skills to find the latest attack’s perpetrators, who remained at large two days later.
The incidents come after the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue in December, deemed a terrorism act by authorities.
Murdoch University criminology expert Mark Briskey said shifting control to NSW’s anti-terror command would unify the police response to the anti-Semitic crime.
It would draw in the “focused resources and intelligence collection that the (counter-terrorism) command has”, he said.
“They’ll also be trying to decide or look at whether this is Palestine-related or far-right, neo-Nazi-related.
“In that regard they’ll be drawing on their connections with ASIO.”
Hours before the Newtown attack, anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on a house in Queens Park in the city’s east and on Friday the Southern Sydney Synagogue, in the suburb of Allawah, was vandalised.
The government has promised bolstered security for Jewish institutions and extra resources for the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, a representative body for the community, after the incidents.
Board president David Ossip said it was imperative perpetrators of anti-Semitic crimes were “swiftly apprehended and receive serious penalties” to deter more incidents.
Investigators have released images of two suspects, both wearing black clothing, who they want to speak to over the attack in Newtown.
Reported cases of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have increased in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched a war in Gaza in response.
By: Sam McKeith and Alex Mitchell/AAP
