ASIO on alert for further threats after Bondi shooting, leaves terror level at probable

2 months ago 6

Follow our live coverage of the Bondi shooting here.

The nation’s top spy agency is investigating whether there is any further threat to Jewish Australians after a mass shooting at Bondi Beach, but is leaving the terror threat level at the current level of probable.

NSW Police’s designation of the shock shooting as a terror attack will allow law enforcement authorities, including the Australian Federal Police (AFP), to use specialist powers to investigate the killings and take steps to protect community safety.

“This attack, this senseless attack, is one which is an act of terror. It is aimed at creating fear,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra late on Sunday night.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess at Sunday night’s press conference.

“But we will stand with the Jewish community and Jewish Australians at this time.”

At least 12 people were shot dead and 29 injured, including two police officers, according to authorities. Members of Sydney’s Jewish community had gathered at Bondi on Sunday evening to celebrate the first night of the Jewish festival Hanukkah.

Albanese flagged there would be increased funding for security for the Jewish community following the attack at one of the country’s most famous landmarks.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said one of the attackers was known to his organisation before the shooting “but not in an immediate threat perspective”.

“We’re looking to see if there’s anyone in the community that has similar intent. It’s important to stress at this point, we have no indications to that fact, but that is something we have active investigations on,” he said.

Burgess said the national terror threat level remains at probable, meaning there was a 50 per cent chance of an act of terror in the next 12 months.

“I don’t see that changing at this stage,” he said as he deplored the “horrific” events at Bondi Beach.

“One incident by itself does not necessarily raise the threat level at the national level, but we keep that under constant review.”

ASIO lifted the national terror threat level from possible to probable in October 2024, saying it “anticipates an increase in politically motivated violence, including terrorism across all ideological spectrums”.

The next level of expected would mean that the government has concerns of a specific terror threat.

The AFP’s acting deputy national commissioner Nigel Ryan said the federal police would “put all resources we can, all our specialist powers, all our specialist resources, towards ensuring that this matter is investigated as thoroughly as possible”.

“In relation to the joint counterterrorism team, we have heard that there has been a declaration of a terrorist incident that will enable the AFP, along with ASIO and New South Wales Police to use specialist powers in relation to this investigation,” he said.

Ryan said he did not want to speculate about leads police were examining because the investigation is ongoing and in its early stages.

Jillian Segal, the federal government’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, said the attack on a peaceful Hanukkah gathering at Bondi “marks the worst fear of the Australian Jewish community becoming reality”.

Segal said the attack had not come without warning, noting inflammatory anti-Israel protests outside the Sydney Opera House in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attacks of 2023.

“To ordinary Australians, this moment demands clarity,” she said.

“What once seemed distant or uncomfortable can no longer be ignored. Taunts from the Opera House steps, synagogues set alight and now massacres at a celebration form part of a clear pattern. This is not the Australia we know and it cannot be the Australia we accept.”

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils expressed “deep sorrow” for the attack in a statement, saying: “No one should ever live in fear of such horrific violence in a public space.