Bondi shooting live updates: Accused terrorist Naveed Akram charged with 15 murders, dozens of offences; Minns flags NSW gun law reform; Frydenberg lashes PM in angry speech

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was asked on ABC’s 7.30 if ASIO continued to keep tabs on Bondi gunman Naveed Akram after he came to the security agency’s attention in 2019.

He didn’t answer that question, but told host Sarah Ferguson that rapid online radicalisation put extra strain on investigators.

“We’ve had a lot of comments, particularly from [ASIO] Director General Mike Burgess, where he’s been saying for a long time now that we have seen a change in the pace of radicalisation,” Burke said.

He said radicalisation was happening faster and reaching people who previously wouldn’t have been exposed to extreme ideology.

“[It’s] often online, often younger people than it used to be,” he said, adding later in the interview he had full confidence in Australia’s intelligence agencies.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Monday.Credit: Ben Symons

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australians will not be divided by the Bondi Beach attack as criticism of his government intensifies.

Speaking on the steps of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday, Albanese said the attack was “pure evil”.

“Yet even in that moment, we were given proof that evil will never overcome the courage, decency, compassion and kindness of Australians that is central to the character of who we are,” Albanese said.

“Our nation is stronger than the cowards who seek to divide us.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives as St Mary’s Cathedral.Credit: AAP

The chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Rabbi Benjamin Elton, speaking at the same memorial, called on the government to provide an “explicit, direct response” to a report from Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal.

“The first duty of a state is to defend its citizens, all its citizens, including its Jewish citizens,” Elton said.

“I have no doubt that our political leaders believe that as much as I do, but now we must see concrete actions being taken.”

Josh Frydenberg has angrily rebuffed the ABC’s 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson, who asked the former treasurer if the audience should view his criticism of the prime minister through a political lens, given the likely prospect Frydenberg will return to politics.

“I’m deeply offended by what you just said. I’m deeply offended,” Frydenberg responded. “That is an insult to say that there’s any political motivation in this.”

He continued:

The reality is this: I’m an Australian who has to have personal security because my life is endangered in this country, and I was the treasurer of this country.

My children go to a school where there are armed guards outside. When I visit a Jewish aged care centre, there are armed guards outside. When I send my kids to Jewish sporting clubs, there are police cars out there and police tape.

How should we live with this? Why should we live with this? So if I’m not going to speak out, who is? If not now, when?

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg was asked on the ABC’s 7.30 why he holds Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally responsible for the actions of alleged terrorists motivated by the extreme ideology of ISIS.

“From the hours after October the 7th, we saw those scenes on the steps of the Opera House, where people were celebrating the death of Jews,” he told host Sarah Ferguson.

“Since that time, we’ve had the doxing of Jewish creatives. We’ve had the boycotting of Jewish businesses. We’ve had the firebombing of places of worship, synagogues across the country, we’ve had childcare centres bombed, and we’ve had daily protests.

Josh Frydenberg at the Bondi memorial on Wednesday.

“All of this has occurred on the prime minister’s watch, and these events created in Australia a radicalised community upon which not only have Jewish Australians been attacked, but all of Australia has been attacked now.

“The prime minister has been told repeatedly along the way that stronger action needed to be taken, not just to ban the preachers, but also to ban these radical Islamic organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir, which are banned in UK, banned in Germany,” he said.

He said “radical Islamic preachers” celebrated the October 7 attack hours after the fact.

“This was the message that was being sent to the Muslim community of Australia for the last two and a half years,” he said, adding “one of the shooters is linked to the factory of hate in Bankstown, under the prime minister’s nose”.

Investigators have not released information on what spurred the terrorist attack other than saying the gunmen were motivated by Islamic State ideology.

The archbishop of Sydney has criticised “inflammatory messages” at pro-Palestine protests, saying they “must stop”.

“The dark stain of antisemitism on our city and nation challenges us all,” Anthony Fisher said at a memorial on the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral on Wednesday.

Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese together in May.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“For two years now, week after week, demonstrations have taken place here in Hyde Park, within earshot of the Great Synagogue, where inflammatory messages were articulated unchecked,” Fisher said.

Chants and slogans “turned up the temperature”.

“This must stop,” Fisher said.

The resilience of the Jewish community is an inspiration and those who were killed on Sunday will be remembered, Fisher said.

“We will honour them best by ensuring antisemitism is prevented and denounced,” he said.

The maximum penalty for the terrorism and murder charges levelled at Bondi gunman Naveed Akram is life in prison, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a video statement this evening.

Despite Akram’s arrest at his hospital bed this afternoon, the investigation continues in full force, Barrett said.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett speaking yesterday.Credit: Sam Mooy

“There is significant digital material being forensically examined. Further search warrants will be executed, and the AFP is continuing to work closely with our international partners,” Barrett said. A trip the gunmen took to the Philippines last month is under scrutiny.

Barrett continued:

Families will continue to bury their loved ones over the coming days. It is hard not to be moved by the weight of grief that is hanging over Sydney.

It’s a reminder of the cruel and hateful act perpetrated against the Jewish community.

As AFP police commissioner, I say to Jewish Australians, you do not and you should not share this grief alone.

We have seen photos of the beautiful and joyful faces now lost and in them, we see our own loved ones, we see the innocent, and we see our fellow Australians.

I say to all of those who are grieving the loss of life, I will share the weight of this unfathomable grief with you, not just as a police officer who is dedicated to protecting and serving our country, but as a wife, as a mother, as a sister, as a daughter.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has delivered a speech to the huge crowd that turned out at the candlelight vigil at Bondi tonight.

In a speech met with applause from the hundreds of community members who gathered at the Bondi Pavilion forecourt, Ley vowed to “force the government to take the action that it needs to keep Jewish Australians safe”.

The time for action was two years ago. The time for our government to stand strong in the face of Jewish hatred was two years ago. The time to stand firm against hate speech and radical Islam was two years ago.

But here we are.

They came for the Harbour Bridge. Now they’ve come for Bondi, but we will not let them win.

We will not accept an Australia where Jewish people cannot celebrate their faith, cannot walk the streets without armed guards watching closely. Where children have to go to kindergarten behind locked doors.

My message to you is this – if I become prime minister, and you practise hate speech, and you talk about radical Islam in a way that harms and hurts your fellow man and woman, and if you glorify hatred, and you are not an Australian citizen, you will be deported.

And if you are an Australian citizen, you will be arrested.

Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley addresses mourners at Bondi Beach.Credit: Janie Barrett

The hero police officer who shot Bondi Beach terrorist Sajid Akram was identified today as Detective Senior Constable Cesar Barraza.

Barraza, a Bondi-based detective, fired at gunmen Sajid and his son Naveed Akram from about 40 metres away as the pair shot indiscriminately at members of the Jewish community gathered at Sunday’s Hanukkah event.

Barraza’s shots are believed to have killed Sajid Akram, 50, and wounded his son Naveed, 24.

Detective Senior Constable Cesar Barraza – seen here aiming from his position behind Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club – has been identified as the hero police officer who shot Bondi Beach terrorist Sajid Akram.Credit: Facebook

While Barraza is believed to have fired the shot that killed Sajid, a ballistics review is likely to confirm which of the officers’ weapons fired the bullet that killed the 50-year-old.

Footage emerged this week of Barraza taking cover against a tree before firing his service weapon towards the footbridge from which the father and son had launched their attack.

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