Tony Abbott has slammed the ‘shocking failure’ of Anthony Albanese’s leadership after it emerged he was kept in the dark about a foiled terrorist plot for nine days.
It’s been revealed that Mr Albanese found out about a caravan laden with explosives in Dural – a suspected terror plot against Sydney’s Jewish community – on the same day as the public.
Police found the caravan on January 19 and NSW Premier Chris Minns was briefed on January 20 – but Mr Albanese wasn’t told until January 29, the same day police leaked the story to the media.
When Mr Minns and Mr Albanese stood side-by-side at a January 21 press conference about the antisemitic firebombing of a Sydney daycare centre, Mr Minns was aware that a potential mass casualty terror plot had been foiled.
But the prime minister had no idea.
Mr Abbott, who also held the top job from 2013 to 2015, described the oversight as a ‘shocking failure of leadership extending right to the top’.
‘It’s hard to credit that NSW police would uncover enough explosives to kill hundreds of people in a caravan belonging to anti-Semitic activists with indications that it was intended to kill Jews and that no one would bother to tell the PM,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
‘Either the authorities aren’t taking public safety seriously or they know the PM doesn’t take it sufficiently seriously so decided that he should be left out of the loop.’
Tony Abbott (pictured) has slammed the ‘shocking failure’ of Anthony Albanese’s leadership after it emerged he was kept in the dark about a foiled terrorist plot for nine days
Police found the caravan on January 19 and NSW Premier Chris Minns was briefed on January 20 – but Mr Albanese wasn’t told until January 29 (pictured is the police operation)
Mr Albanese had on Friday became agitated while speaking to reporters, refusing to say when he had first been told about the foiled plot.
‘What’s correct protocol is making sure that we don’t speak about operational matters,’ he said.
The revelation of Mr Albanese’s nine-day ignorance of the terror plot, comes as a man is charged over yet another alleged anti-Semitic graffiti incident in Sydney’s east.
NSW Police allegedly caught and arrested a man in the act of scrawling Nazi symbols on a wall on Anzac Parade, Kingsford, on Friday afternoon.
The multi-agency investigation into the caravan has now spread to Queensland, it was revealed on Saturday.
Queensland Police have confirmed they are supporting the multi-agency probe that began in NSW when the caravan was first discovered on January 19.
‘The Queensland Police Service, Security and Counter Terrorism Command remains engaged and supporting the New South Wales investigation with all necessary resources,’ a spokesperson said.
Police are still hunting for the ringleaders who may have recruited two people in the suspected anti-Semitic terror plot.
Mr Albanese found out about a caravan laden with explosives in Dural – a suspected terror plot against Sydney’s Jewish community – on the same day as the public
Tammie Farrugia and her boyfriend Scott Marshall are in custody charged with unrelated offences, with police saying their arrests were made on the ‘periphery’ of the caravan case
Tammie Farrugia and her boyfriend Scott Marshall are in custody charged with unrelated offences, with police saying their arrests were made on the ‘periphery’ of the case.
The couple had posted on Facebook last month seeking a caravan.
Farrugia and Marshall have not been charged in relation to the caravan and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing. But it’s understood terrorism police are probing whether the couple have ties to bikie gangs or white supremacist groups.
Farrugia was arrested over an alleged anti-Semitic attack at Woollahra, in Sydney’s east, in December, while Marshall was charged late last year with weapons and drug offences to which he has pleaded not guilty.
They do not appear to have any history of extremist ideology, which might support Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw’s warning that overseas actors could be paying petty criminals to carry out anti-Semitic attacks.
