Premier’s leadership is strong, but he will need to find another gear to reassure Jewish community
NSW Premier Chris Minns has shown strong leadership as antisemitism has swept across his city, reassuring a shaken Jewish community that he will never abandon them.
In turn, the Jewish community has been grateful, as it has watched on as homes, cars and childcare centres are firebombed, antisemitic bile is splashed across public places and hundreds of police are patrolling their streets in a constant reminder that violence is always lurking.
Premier Chris Minns and Police Commissioner Karen Webb speak on Thursday. Credit: Nick Moir
However, that goodwill to Minns, which is not extended to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, could evaporate if the premier, and his police force, cannot convince the Jewish community that it had to be kept in the dark over the discovery of an explosive-laden caravan that had the potential to cause mass casualties. There was a note inside with details of a Sydney synagogue.
The only reason the details of the caravan, abandoned for six weeks in the semi-rural Sydney suburb of Dural, emerged and were confirmed on Wednesday was because the Daily Telegraph had been leaked the details. At that point, the government and police had to jump.
At that stage, it was made clear that some 10 days earlier, the caravan had been discovered and a 100-strong investigation team formed to investigate what could have been a deadly disaster had it been towed to the identified synagogue and detonated. The owner of the caravan is in custody.
Meetings were planned with selected members of the Jewish community (who had been kept tangentially abreast of the ongoing investigation) and the federal police for Thursday morning. Had the Telegraph not been provided with the leak, the public would be none the wiser.
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Minns took to Sydney’s morning breakfast television shows and radio programmes to stress that the one and only reason for the secrecy was because the NSW Police (and by extension its partners the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Office) believed it was crucial for their investigation.
This is not uncommon or unreasonable.
