ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for joining us. I am joined by the AFP Commissioner. This has been the darkest week in Australia's recent history. The terrorist atrocity committed against innocent people celebrating Chanukah last week at Bondi Beach, targeting our cherished Jewish Australian community, has left our nation grieving and angry. The nation is carrying deep pain and sorrow, and last night, I was honoured to join with Jewish worshippers at the Great Synagogue in Sydney to honour the memory of the 15 lives stolen last Sunday, and to also commemorate those who've been injured, and a community that has been deeply traumatised by the events of last Sunday. Last night, hosted by Rabbi Ben Elton, it was a night of unity, resilience, comfort, faith and love. It was also a celebration of Chanukah with fire displays and entertainment for the young children who were there at the Great Synagogue. It showed to me that the spirit of our Jewish Australian community is completely unbreakable. Australia will not allow these evil antisemitic terrorists to divide us. No matter how dark things were, and continue to be, light will triumph. And that is what Chanukah is about. Today, Jewish Australians are observing their holy day of Shabbat. It's a Shabbat like none that have come before. Tomorrow will mark one week since this senseless and heinous attack. It will be another difficult day for grieving families, for loved ones and for us as a nation. As I announced yesterday, we've declared tomorrow, together with New South Wales, a National Day of Reflection to honour the victims and stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. Flags will be flown at half mast and Australians are asked to light a candle and put it in their front window, and to observe a minute's silence at 6:47pm. 60 seconds carved out from the noise of daily life dedicated to 15 Australians who should be with us today. It will be a moment of pause to reflect and affirm that hatred and violence will never define us as Australians. The theme of the memorial service tomorrow night in Bondi is a Night of Unity, light over darkness. And we are seeing that exhibited in so many ways by the 24 hour service that our medical professionals, our nurses and people are showing in hospitals caring for people, by the queues of Australians wanting to give blood to assist with the process, by people reaching out to give comfort to their Jewish friends in their local communities as well. Together with the New South Wales Government, we'll continue to discuss with Jewish community leaders the establishment of a permanent memorial at Bondi as well as the National Day of Mourning. Today, the National Security Committee has met for the seventh time since last Sunday. We'll continue to meet and to be briefed by our agencies on their response. And yesterday I visited the Australian Federal Police and ASIO to thank those personnel who are working so hard on these issues. And on Monday I will reconvene the Cabinet here in Canberra to continue the work that we are doing. Over recent days, we've announced new measures to eliminate the scourge of antisemitism, to stop the hate preachers, to get guns off our streets and to ensure that law enforcement agencies have the resources that they need to prevent future attacks. We've also announced mental health and small business support for the local community around Bondi. Today, we've also announced as the result of a request, new funding for both Bondi and North Bondi Lifesaving Clubs. They used up a lot of their resources in responding to the crisis that we saw last Sunday. Many of these lifesavers also, of course, ran towards danger to provide support, to use the skills that they have to save lives. I'm deeply proud indeed of every hero, as I'm sure every Australian should be, who saved lives last Sunday and in time will make sure that they're appropriately recognised.
Before I turn to Commissioner Barrett to give an AFP operation update, I do want to comment on the US strikes on ISIS in Syria that we've seen. These strikes are a direct response to ISIS attacks on US defence personnel. And the actions of the United States Government are timely, swift and decisive and we support those actions. ISIS has caused untold suffering around the world, both directly with the actions that they've taken, but also through their evil ideology that they spread. And last Sunday was an ISIS-inspired attack here in Australia. And that evil ideology represents something that should have no place in any consideration of humanity and who we are as global citizens, let alone as Australians. And I support the US Government response there. I'll now turn to Commissioner Barrett to give an AFP operational update.
KRISSY BARRETT, AFP COMMISSIONER: Thank you and good afternoon. Today I will provide a brief update on Operation Arques. A 24-year-old man charged with 59 offences remains in custody in a New South Wales hospital. The New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism team continues to review evidence and information, including from search warrants conducted as recently as yesterday. The location of the search warrants will not be made public but let me reassure Australians we are leaving no stone unturned in Australia and overseas in this investigation. There are three clear priorities for the AFP and our partners through the JCTT we will ensure we prepare a thorough and fulsome brief of evidence to prosecute the alleged offender now before the courts, we will identify the methods, capability and connections of these alleged offenders to determine who the alleged offenders communicated with leading up to the attack, and we will use this information to cast a wider net to identify others who may not be directly linked to this investigation, but should be under the attention of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. At the recent Interpol General Assembly, I spoke to police commissioners from around the world about antisemitism and how to fight this sickening scourge that eats at our country like a cancer. I will ensure that we have pulled every single lever we can to protect our Jewish community. And this week I revealed those described as hate preachers are being investigated and have been for some time by the AFP. It is clear that some of these preachers have hired lawyers to ensure they do not reach the threshold to be charged for hate speech and other crimes. Some of these preachers know exactly what they are doing and are clearly trying to cause fear and division. The announcement this week to lower the threshold for hate speech will give the AFP greater scope to deter and charge individuals who are injecting and directing poisonous language towards the Jewish community. Operation Avalite, which is now wrapped into our expanded national security investigations teams, continues to monitor the language used by these preachers and we do not rule out charges under the current legislation. Since the commencement of Operation Avalite 12 months ago, our teams have received crucial training in antisemitism, which has helped us in our investigations. This training is ongoing and it will be a key feature of our expanded national security investigations teams. In addition, our community liaison teams continue to engage with the Jewish community to understand their perspectives, their feelings and to offer reassurance of our commitment to their safety and security. And I want to thank senior Jewish leaders for their time whenever we have requested it. They have been very generous, and I personally want to thank them for the guidance that they have provided to me. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Commissioner.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said you were at the Great Synagogue last night. Can you talk me through how were people last night? What were they saying to you there?
PRIME MINISTER: They were, firstly, determined to celebrate their Jewish faith. To engage in the initial period after we arrived, there was much dancing of children. There was singing and people singing along. It was a joyous celebration. But of course, in the context of what has been a very difficult period for the Jewish community, I felt very moved by having the opportunity to spend time with the community. We engaged in as well, after that occurred, there was the lighting of the Menorah, the Chanukah celebrations of the next candle commemorating the victory of light over darkness. And it was a very uplifting event. And for the community, it was an opportunity to engage very directly with them. And I thank Rabbi Ben Elton, but others who were there as well. There was the religious service as well took place and I was accompanied by the Governor of New South Wales, was there, Matt Thistlethwaite, Christopher Minns was there for the Chanukah part of the evening as well. And it showed to me, as I said in my opening remarks, it just showed that this is a community that are determined to be proud of who they are, as they should be. To not be cowered by the actions of terrorists who seek to divide us, but to be able to practice their faith and to engage with each other in a very positive way. I was given gifts by some Jewish community leaders beforehand, traditional to give some bread that was baked as part of the Chanukah commemorations as well. So it was very positive, and I thank I thank Rabbi Elton for the welcome. I thought his sermon as well, which was about unity, about reconciliation, about people of different faiths living together and that being uplifting for the whole community. It was a very positive message that I received last night.
JOURNALIST: What items were discussed in the National Security Committee this morning? And were there any developments in terms of the measures that we can see in the aftermath of the attack?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we don't, I don't give a line by line report on NSC, but we continued to hear reports about the investigations from both the AFP, ASIO and ASIS as well. We continue to discuss as well, the response. We agreed to reconvene the Cabinet on Monday morning, the full Cabinet here in Canberra, and we had discussions as well about the work that's been taking place on the development of legislation to bring before the Parliament to strengthen hate laws and to strengthen other laws to deal with what I foreshadowed on Friday.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I have a couple of questions for you if you'll allow me, seeing as we're so light on.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, sure.
JOURNALIST: This was the deadliest terror attack in Australia's history. Will you be supporting a Royal Commission into the attack?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're continuing to do at this point is to act and we are acting. I've asked the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as well to give consideration to looking across departments. I'll have more to say about those issues. I note that New South Wales - I had a discussion with Chris Minns this morning that they are considering calling a Royal Commission.
JOURNALIST: He had said that this morning. Will you be supporting that yourself?
PRIME MINISTER: I will support whatever actions the New South Wales government take. We are working in lockstep.
JOURNALIST: So, when will we see that Royal Commission?
PRIME MINISTER: New South Wales have made an announcement this morning. They're working on that.
JOURNALIST: Okay. We've talked a lot this year about espionage and foreign interference. But do you think your government had the right security priorities in the months leading up to this deadly attack?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, we continue to have, to prioritise, keeping Australians safe. The government and all of the agencies prioritise the threats that they have identified. And foremost of that is the threat from some of the extreme Islamist inspired threats which are there. So, my government continues to engage in all of the threats, but we are prioritised according to the advice that we receive. What my job is to do is to give every support to the AFP, to ASIO, to ASIS, to the Australian Signals Directorate, to all of our national security architecture to make sure that they can be the best that they can possibly be in defending Australia's interests. That is what we do and we have provided every support.
JOURNALIST: What do you say to criticism from members of the Federal Opposition and some Jewish leaders that your leadership has been weak during this time?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I say that this is a time for us to unite. This is not a time for partisan politics. This is a time for us to unite together in in what we know is in Australia's national interest. And I note that tomorrow evening the theme is A Night of Unity - Light over Darkness. That is what I'm determined to do and that is what in the past when there have been issues such as the Port Arthur shooting, Covid, a range of issues that have tested our nation, the nation comes together. And certainly oppositions - in the laws that were put before the Parliament from John Howard, the Opposition at that time provided support for those issues rather than looked for product differentiation. And we will certainly reach out to the Opposition, and continue to do so. We want these issues to not be issues which are partisan because that is what Australians expect of their government, but also what they expect of their Parliament.
JOURNALIST: There's been reports of extra police being deployed in New South Wales and also Sydney's Muslim community being warned of more counter terror raids. Are you worried about the impact of Sunday on social cohesion?
PRIME MINISTER:The priority must be keeping people safe, and that has been the priority. One way that we keep people safe, though, is to engage with the community, and that is what I know the Australian Federal Police and the intelligence agencies continue to do as well.
JOURNALIST: Allegra Spender has called for the Minister for Social Cohesion to be created. Is that something you would support? Do you think there is there should be further action around boosting community cohesion at this time?
PRIME MINISTER:I think one of the things that my government has prioritised is social cohesion and working through all of those issues. If you look at the work that we have done in areas like multicultural affairs, we prioritise that. But the first priority, the first priority must be keeping people safe. And that is what we have done.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you be at Bondi tomorrow night for that moment of reflection?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I will, and I'll be honoured to be there because it will be a very significant event for our nation. Thank you.