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Pro-Palestinian protests ‘unleashing forces in our community that are not being contained’, Minns says
Minns has been asked about the pro-Palestine protests and if he backs the opposition’s idea of making protesters pay police to hold them. He says:
I mean, my view about these protests has been that it is unleashing forces in our community that are not being contained. When you see people marching and showing violent, bloody images, images of death and destruction, it’s unleashing something in our community that the organisers of the protest can’t contain.
The truth of the matter is – we can’t risk another mass demonstration on that scale in New South Wales. The implications can be seen in my view on Sunday, not just on Sunday – the anti-Jewish, antisemitism graffiti and arson attacks in our community over the last two years.
He says he supports the idea, but it is unconstitutional.
I think it’s good that ideas are being pushed forward. I’m not going to act on that specific one today and there’s a reason for it. I got clear advice is that – is that it breaches the commonwealth constitution.
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Earlier this morning we brought you the news that Ahmed al-Ahmed had been presented with an oversized novelty cheque for $2.5m, representing the funds raised for him among the $5m that had been donated for different fundraisers supporting people in the aftermath of the terror attack.
Here’s a picture of that moment with Ahmed that’s been shared on Instagram.
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There are still 15 patients receiving hospital care in Sydney for injuries sustained in the terror attack on Sunday, according to NSW Health.
One patient’s condition has stabilised at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital since this morning, while another’s has unfortunately become critical, albeit stable, at St Vincent’s.
As of 1:30pm, Friday 19 December:
One patient is in a stable condition at Prince of Wales Hospital.
One patient is in a critical but stable condition and one patient is in a stable condition at St George Hospital.
Three patients are in a critical but stable condition and one patient is stable at St Vincent’s Hospital.
Five patients are stable at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Three patients are in a stable condition at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Penry Buckley
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies welcomes ‘measured changes’ to protest laws
The peak representative body for the Jewish community in NSW has welcomed the state government’s plan to limit protests for up to three months after terrorist incidents.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has announced legislation which would give the police the power to ban applications for protests in designated areas following a terrorist incident, including Sunday’s Bondi beach attack, for up to three months.
In a statement, the president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, said the “measured changes” would do “the obvious and decent thing, protect grieving community members from at best ignorant activists and at worst bad actors seeking to provoke conflict in the wake of a terror attack”:
The right to protest is an Australian value but so is letting us come together without harassment and intimidation to mourn and support each other.
A free, respectful and cohesive society is at the heart of the promise of Australia but Sunday’s violent murders are tragic proof that it is also a fragile and much damaged ideal.
But Ossip called for further changes, saying the laws “will only apply in the wake of a terror attack”.
Cait Kelly
And with that, I am going to hand over to Stephanie Convery, who will take you through to the evening.
Catie McLeod
Identity of 15th victim of Bondi terror attack reported in Sydney media
The 15th and final victim of the Bondi terror attack to be identified has been widely reported by Sydney media to be 68-year-old Tania Tretiak.
NSW police said they had been asked by the family not to confirm the victim’s identity and wouldn’t comment further.
Holocaust survivors, community heroes and 10-year-old Matilda are among the other victims of the shooting on Sunday.
Most were attending a celebration for the first day of Hanukkah when the shooting began.
It is the worst mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Ulman says Brutman was a person “who did everything in a full-on way” – she wanted to be charitable, to contribute and give. Her husband, Tibor Hashem, also died in the shootings, with his funeral held yesterday.
The vast majority of people that I had to eulogise are the people that I feel are my family, and Edith is certainly one of them. It is truly difficult for me to imagine that she’s not here, and for many reasons.
She wasn’t just part of our lives. She was a very, very vocal part of our lives, she made sure that we knew she was around.
Her love, her loyalty, her devotion, was really unique in every way.
Funeral begins for Edith Brutman
The funeral for victim Edith Brutman, the vice-president of NSW’s anti-prejudice and anti-discrimination committee at B’nai B’rith, has begun.
It is the second public funeral Rabbi Yehoram Ulman has led today, and the tenth funeral since the tragedy. The Israeli ambassador has also read a prayer.
NSW Faith Affairs Council launches campaign encouraging Australians to do one act of kindness, compassion or charity
The NSW Faith Affairs Council, with support from the Minns government is launching the #OneMitzvahforBondi campaign.
The campaign asks all Australians to undertake one act of kindness, compassion or charity, and to share their good deed with the wider community. You can do this through: volunteering, donating, giving blood, calling someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, buying a neighbour a coffee, or supporting those in need.
Chair of the NSW Faith Affairs Council Right Rev Dr Michael Stead, of the Anglican Church of Australia, said:
At the core of our faith communities is a commitment to love and compassion.
The NSW Faith Affairs Council encourages everyone to take part in the One Mitzvah for Bondi campaign, to spread warmth and kindness to our fellow Australians.
I would like to sincerely thank our Jewish leaders for their grace and guidance during this unfathomable period of grief.
Male WA police officer charged with assault occasioning bodily harm after investigation of arrest of woman
The Western Australia police force has charged a 23-year-old male constable from the Fremantle District, after an internal investigation into his alleged involvement in the arrest of a woman in North Fremantle on Friday, 17 January 2025.
The officer has been charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.
He is due to appear before Fremantle magistrates court today, Friday, 19 December 2025.
The officer has been stood down from operational duties.
Judge rules far-right extremist did perform Nazi salute after appeal
A far-right extremist did perform a Nazi salute outside court, a judge has ruled following an appeal hearing, AAP has reported.
Jacob Hersant, 26, in November 2024 became the first Australian jailed for performing a Nazi salute in public.
The self-described neo-Nazi was sentenced to one month behind bars but immediately launched an appeal against his conviction in the Victorian county court.
After a three-day hearing in October, Judge Simon Moglia on Friday ruled Hersant was guilty of intentionally performing the salute on 27 October 2023.
The 26-year-old had argued he did not perform the sieg heil and, even if he did, the charge was constitutionally invalid as the gesture was a legitimate form of political expression.
Video played in court showed Hersant raising his arm to salute in front of media outside the County Court, about six days after Victorian laws banning the gesture came into effect.
He was then captured on camera saying “nearly did it – it’s illegal now” and “Australia for the white man, heil Hitler”, before walking away.
Moglia described the comments after the gesture as a brazen acknowledgment of his offending.
Krishani Dhanji
Greens support gun buyback, urging reforms to be ‘above politics’
The Greens have welcomed Labor’s firearms buyback announcement and called for greater transparency around gun ownership and a ban on recreational hunting.
The government announced the biggest buyback in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre, following the terror attack in Bondi on Sunday.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said parliament and the community should “unify” to get more guns off Australia’s streets.
There are now more guns in the community than before the Port Arthur massacre. It’s time we built on the last gun buyback and strengthened our gun laws to keep communities safer – at the same time as tackling antisemitism, racism and radicalisation.
The Greens will help to get guns off our streets, and so should every member of parliament. It should be above politics to stop the hoarding of these weapons that killed so many innocent men, women and children.
There are more than 4m legally owned guns in Australia, an increase of more than 25% since landmark law reforms were introduced by the Howard government in 1996.
Tom McIlroy
PM visits Asio and AFP headquarters
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has visited the headquarters of Asio and the Australian federal police in Canberra, as investigations into the Bondi terror attacks continue.
During the visits on Friday, the prime minister thanked officers for their work in the wake of last Sunday night’s killings.
Albanese spoke with the AFP’s counter-terrorism team, receiving an update on the investigation into the deaths of 15 people, before meeting with Asio director general, Mike Burgess, and Asio officers who were part of the initial response on Sunday night.
Earlier, Albanese and the AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, confirmed officers from the Office of Intelligence had established the shooters had used a regular online video game feed from terror group Islamic State.
Tory Shepherd
Object that struck self-driving Tesla remains a mystery
It did not come from outer space.
Andrew Melville-Smith was in his Tesla on a South Australian highway when something smashed into the windscreen, and it looked as though it had partially melted it.
The SA Museum investigated whether a meteorite was the culprit as there was “no clear earthly source of the debris”.
But today the museum says the windscreen discolouration was not from heat damage, that the shattering of the windscreen is consistent with an object about 2cm in diameter striking it, and that it was unlikely to be extraterrestrial. In a statement, the museum said:
The Australian Space Agency confirmed for the museum that it did not detect any objects entering the atmosphere at the time of the incident.
The identity of the object remains a mystery, however the available evidence does not point towards an extraterrestrial source. The South Australian Museum is confident that the damage was not caused by a meteorite.
More than 200 civil society organisations express solidarity with Jewish community
More than 200 civil society organisations, representing millions of Australians, have issued a joint statement of solidarity with the Australian Jewish community following the antisemitic terror attack on Hanukkah celebrations in Bondi.
The statement expresses shared grief with the families, victims, first responders and the wider Jewish community, and a clear rejection of antisemitism and anti-Jewish racism in Australia. It also echoes the NSW Faith Affairs Council’s call for unity and explicitly rejects efforts to exploit the tragedy to create fear, division or disinformation.
Australian Democracy Network executive director, Saffron Zomer, said the statement reflects civil society standing together:
This attack has caused deep pain and fear. We stand with the Australian Jewish community in grief, love and solidarity. Civil society is united in rejecting antisemitism and committing to deepen our understanding of how such violence arises and how it can be prevented.
Climate Action Network Australia CEO, Denise Cauchi, said the statement shows broad sector unity around safety and belonging:
The Jewish community, like everyone in Australia, has the right to celebrate and express their culture, identity and faith in safety. Antisemitism and anti-Jewish racism must have no place in our society.
