Anthony Albanese has given in to pressure to convene a national cabinet to respond to a wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
The Prime Minister has for weeks resisted calls to convene such a meeting of state and territory leaders but has now yielded after yet another anti-Semitic incident.
On Tuesday morning, there was an attempted arson attack on a childcare centre in Maroubra in Sydney‘s south and graffiti which read ‘f*** the Jews’ was also sprayed.
It was the latest in a long list of anti-Semitic incidents to afflict Australia.
On Friday, the former home of a prominent Jewish leader, Alex Ryvchin, was soaked in red paint while cars were spray-painted and torched in the street.
Mr Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, had written to Mr Albanese last month to request an urgent meeting of the national cabinet following the terror attack on the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne.
That request initially fell on deaf ears, as too did a similar request from Mr Albanese’s own hand-picked anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal, who accused the Prime Minister of not showing ‘leadership’ on the issue.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joined the calls, saying on Monday that the Coalition would call one if voted into government at the upcoming election.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) has for weeks resisted calls to convene a crisis meeting of state and territory leaders but has now yielded after yet another anti-Semitic incident
An anti-Semitic slur was found spray-painted on the childcare centre’s exterior wall (pictured), with the building set ablaze in yet another hate crime to afflict Sydney
‘The shocking rise in anti-Semitism in our country is a national crisis which requires a national response,’ Mr Dutton said.
‘I first requested the PM convene a National Cabinet on anti-Semitism in November 2023. He failed to do so.
‘Last week I again wrote to him requesting a National Cabinet on this most pressing matter yet he still evades his responsibility.’
Just 24 hours after the Coalition’s campaign promise, Mr Albanese said he will hold a meeting of the leaders of the states and territories on Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Dutton said the national cabinet needed to have ‘tangible outcomes’.
‘There’s no sense holding a meeting for the sake of ticking a box,’ he added.
‘If the Prime Minister thinks that he’s going to get the Australian public off his back and that he’ll have some reprieve from the media by holding this meeting, he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.
‘This is a national crisis. We are having rolling terrorist attacks in our community, and the Prime Minister is being dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation’s leaders.’
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, had written to Mr Albanese last month to request an urgent meeting of the national cabinet following the terror attack on the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne . But his request fell on deaf ears. (Mr Ryvchin is pictured with his wife outside their former family home, which was targeted on Friday)
It came after an apparent anti-Semitic firebombing destroyed a daycare centre in Sydney‘s eastern suburbs on Tuesday morning.
Emergency services were called to Only About Children childcare centre on the corner of Anzac Parade and Storey Street, Maroubra, at about 1.00am following reports of a fire.
The arsonists set fire to the childcare centre and spray-painted an anti-Semitic slur on its exterior wall.
Police believe the attack may have targeted the wrong property as there is a synagogue 150 metres further down Anzac Parade, and the damaged child care centre had no connection to it.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the attack as an ‘evil hate crime‘.
A series of highly disturbing anti-Semitic attacks in recent days and weeks, including the firebombing of a Synagogue and an attack on the former home of a prominent Jewish leader (pictured), has prompted the Coalition to announce a raft of tough new measures
‘My government will support NSW Police to hunt down the offenders and ensure they face the full force of the law through Operation Avalite,’ Mr Albanese said.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia’s leading civil rights organisation fighting antisemitism, said Mr Albanese’s decision to convene a national cabinet meeting had come at ‘long last’.
‘The alarm bells have been heard, but let’s not mistake this for progress—this is survival,’ he said.
‘Australia is on the brink of a moral reckoning, and the gathering of state and territory leaders is not just overdue—it’s an act of national triage to stop the bleeding before it’s too late.
‘The attempted arson of a childcare centre in Maroubra, smeared with venomous anti-Jewish graffiti, is not just a hate crime—it’s a declaration of war against decency, a grotesque symbol of how far the rot of antisemitism has spread.
Dr Abramovich said the ‘national cabinet cannot be another talkfest—it must be the start of an uncompromising, unified offensive against the forces of hate that are poisoning our communities’.
‘The agenda must be clear: nationwide legal reforms to make antisemitic crimes punishable by the harshest penalties, zero-tolerance enforcement that removes ambiguity, and a commitment to education so unyielding that no Australian grows up ignorant of the Holocaust or blind to the dangers of prejudice,’ he adedd.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced his plan on Monday for tougher laws to combat anti-Semitism.
Terrorism offences would attract a minimum of six years in jail under the coalition’s proposed laws, while those displaying terrorist organisation signs, Nazi symbols or performing a Nazi salute would face at least a year behind bars.
‘They force courts to impose sentences where the circumstances do not warrant it because of the nature of offending, or the background of the offender,’ he said.