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What we learned, Wednesday 17 December
That’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s a snapshot of the events of today:
Alleged Bondi gunman Naveed Akram, who survived a shootout with police, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and terrorism charges, after waking from his coma on Tuesday.
As at 7.30pm tonight, there were 17 people still receiving care in Sydney hospitals for injuries sustained in Sunday’s shooting.
Funerals for victims of the shootings began today, including that of Rabbi Eli Schlanger.
Waverley Council has cancelled New Year’s Eve events at Bondi beach “due to the current situation on the ground”.
NSW parliament will be recalled on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 December to consider new, tougher firearm legislation.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has also flagged his intention to tighten laws around protests, raising civil liberties concerns.
Former Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg has claimed Anthony Albanese is personally responsible for the deaths on Sunday.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has pushed back on proposed changes to gun laws, saying Australia’s “gun laws work”
Jack Hibbert, a probationary constable injured during the Bondi shooting, has lost sight in one eye after being shot in the head while trying to save people on the beach.
The Australian National Imams Council, as the highest Islamic and religious authority in Australia, together with its member imams and religious leaders, unequivocally condemned Islamic State and the attackers.
Thanks for your company today. We’ll be back with you again early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, please look after yourselves, your loved ones and your communities.
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Updated at 10.43 CET
‘He has the impulse to protect people’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s father praises son in interview
In an interview aired on BBC radio, the father of Ahmed al-Ahmed, who wrestled and disarmed one of the alleged gunmen on Sunday, noted through a translator that his son had a police and security background:
My son is a hero. He served with the police and in the central security forces, and he has the impulse to protect people. When he saw people lying on the ground, and the blood everywhere. Immediately his conscience is so compelled him to pounce on one of the terrorists and to rid him of his weapon. I feel pride and honour because my son is a hero of Australia.
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Updated at 10.40 CET
Latest update on injured victims
The latest update from NSW Health is in: there are 17 patients receiving care in several Sydney hospitals for their injuries sustained in the attack at Bondi on Sunday.
As of 7.30pm, Wednesday 17 December:
One patient is in a stable condition at Prince of Wales hospital.
One patient is in a critical but stable condition and one patient is in a stable condition at St George hospital.
Three patients are in a critical but stable condition and one patient is in a stable condition at St Vincent’s hospital.
One patient is in a critical condition and four patients are stable at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
One patient is in a stable condition at Sydney children’s hospital, Randwick.
Three patients are in a stable condition at Royal North Shore hospital.
One patient is in a stable condition at Liverpool hospital.
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Updated at 10.19 CET
Following on from the previous post, Anthony Albanese’s speech continued:
There was pure evil at Bondi last Sunday. 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.
Our nation is stronger than the cowards who seek to divide us. The spirit of the country that we have built together will always be greater than those who seek to [break] it. We are braver than the people who try to make us afraid. We will not be intimidated. We will come together as we are this evening, and we will come through this together.
Friends, this sacred place is where I learned about the love and the compassion of Christ. I commenced school here in year 5, and for the next eight years, I was nurtured here as a student, as a boy maturing into a young man and as an altar boy in the church behind us … I was raised to believe in the duty we owe to the vulnerable, not as a question of charity, but as the measure of our common humanity.
When we go in peace today, let us carry the hope of this place in our hearts. For those of us celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ in just over one week, let us live up to his example of love to our neighbours. Let us wrap our arms around the Jewish community, and with our words and deeds, make it clear you are Australian, and all Australians stand with you, no matter which faith we worship or whether we have no faith at all, we stand with Jewish Australians.
You have every right to worship and study and work and live in peace and safety. You have every right to be proud of who you are and proud of the remarkable contribution that your community has made to Sydney and to modern Australia over generations. Sunday was a dark day for our nation. Tonight, as we illuminate this cathedral, let us ensure that Australia remains a land of light, a nation blessed and enriched and strengthened and inspired by everything and in the days ahead, may your faith comfort you, may it sustain you, may it lift you up and surround you with the love and nurture of others.
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Updated at 10.21 CET
‘We grieve for the light and laughter and strength and comfort’: PM speaks at multi-faith service
My colleague Kelly Burke has been listening to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, speak at the multifaith memorial service being held at St Mary’s Cathedral tonight in Sydney.
Here’s the first part of his speech:
Tonight, as we gather in one iconic Sydney location, we mourn the devastation inflicted at another. At this cathedral dedicated to our Catholic faith, we grieve for all those who were killed affirming their faith, Jewish Australians deliberately targeted on the first night of Hanukah, as they came together at that beautiful place to renew their hope, their resilience, their belief in the power of light, the darkness of terror and antisemitism was passed upon them.
Our prayers this evening are for the souls of the innocent people whose lives were so cruelly and violently stolen away at Bondi beach that Sunday evening. We pray with those who we knew and loved, including, I know, the family of Rabbi Eli who was farewelled today, everyone who has lost the centre of their universe, the love of their life, their pride and joy, we grieve for the light and laughter and strength and comfort that so many have lost. We grieve with everyone who would have shared in their happiness.
We pray that those being treated for their injuries recover, we reflect with gratitude on the bravery and skill of the police and first responders who saved lives, and we offer our thanks for the courage and selflessness of everyday Australians; people who, in a moment of deadly danger, did not hesitate to run to the aid of strangers, to shield, shelter or comfort people fleeing in fear.
Ordinary people demonstrating extraordinary courage, including the remarkable actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed, who put himself in the line of fire, wrestling a gun away from one of the shooters. People he has never met owe him their lives.
We pray for the souls of Boris and Sophia Burman and Reuven Morrison, murdered while bravely protecting others. Our nation owes them and all the heroes of Bondi a profound debt of gratitude, not just for their bravery, but also for their example, for reminding us that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese speaks at a memorial prayer service at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPShare
Updated at 10.22 CET
Frydenberg says questions surrounding Bondi shooting not ‘sufficiently answered’
Asked if he was calling for a royal commission into the events in Bondi, Frydenberg says there are questions that haven’t been “sufficiently answered”.
How did these people get guns? How were they radicalised? How were they trained overseas? How did they escape the eyes of our authorities? Why was there only three police protecting 1,000 Jewish people in an open [area] at Bondi at a time when concerns have been heightened and the security environment is worrying?
Those are practical needs that need to be answered, but also, what were the warning signs over the last two-and-a-half years?
What could have been done that wasn’t done to tackle the preachers, to tackle the protesters, to improve our immigration stances, to deal with our universities, to respond … [to the] special envoy on antisemitism’s report, which has been with [Albanese] for 150 days?
We need to understand those things, but we need a road map for going forward. A legislative framework so that we actually take action … across all aspects of the society to ensure that Australian citizens are safe again in their own country.
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Updated at 10.06 CET
Frydenberg claims pro-Palestine protests created a ‘radicalised community’
Former federal treasurer and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg has been speaking to ABC’s 7.30 after his comments today in which he claimed the prime minister was personally responsible for the attack on Sunday.
You can read more about Frydenberg’s comments here:
Host Sarah Ferguson has asked Frydenberg to “lay out carefully” what it is he believes Albanese personally failed to do that contributed to the attack, knowing what we know now.
Frydenberg responds by referring to the pro-Palestine protests, and wraps them in with acts of antisemitism including a childcare centre that was set alight in January. He says:
All this occurred on the prime minister’s watch. These created in Australia a radicalised community upon which, not only have Jews 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 which are banned in the UK, banned in Germany, banned in moderate Muslim states, but … not banned in Australia. To prosecute and to prosecute those who are creating all this intimidation and hate and incitement to violence, to do more at our universities, to do more in our arts sectors, to better fund security.
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Updated at 10.18 CET
Kelly Burke
PM to address crowd outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney
Police have closed College Street for a gathering of about 2,000 people outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is about to address the crowd.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese attends a memorial prayer service at St Mary’s Cathedral. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
NSW Premier Chris Minns is also at the memorial.
New South Wales premier Chris Minns at the memorial prayer service. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPShare
Updated at 09.47 CET
Nino Bucci
The quiet bricklayer, his father and a leave of absence: the duo accused of killing 15 people in Bondi
It was late June in 2019, and a 17-year-old Naveed Akram was standing outside Bankstown train station in Sydney’s west, earnestly extolling the virtues of prayer.
He was working with young men performing street dawah, a form of outreach in which the ultimate goal is to convert passersby to Islam.
Over the next few months, Akram turned 18, finished a vocational training course and started an apprenticeship as a bricklayer – his first and only proper job. And, according to police, he came under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
This appears to be the only time either Akram or his father, Sajid, came to the attention of authorities before allegedly carrying out the worst terrorist attack in Australian history. On Wednesday, police charged the younger man with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act. They allege the evidence points to the attack being “inspired” by Islamic State.
Read the full story here:
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Updated at 09.30 CET
Kelly Burke
At Bondi Pavilion tonight, Sussan Ley has addressed a crowd of about 2,000 gathered for the lighting of the menorah at the scene of Sunday’s tragedy.
“The time for words is finished,” she told the crowd:
The time for action was two years ago, for our government to stand strong in the face of Jewish hatred. The time to stand firm against hate speech and a radical Islam was two years ago. Yet here we are.
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Updated at 09.25 CET
Nick Visser
A Jewish bakery in Sydney run by a celebrity chef has closed – apparently for good – after the Bondi beach terror attack, with a message posted on the shop’s window saying it can no longer ensure the safety of its staff and customers.
Avner’s Bakery, a prominent Jewish bakery in Surry Hills run by celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi closed after Sunday’s massacre at a gathering to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukah.
“Closed today, closed forever,” a man – who did not give his name – said outside the shop on Wednesday morning.
A notice on the bakery’s window on Wednesday morning from “Ed and the Avner’s team” said the “world had changed, our world has changed”.
Read the full story here:
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Updated at 10.19 CET
Luca Ittimani
Ley claims security agencies under-resourced
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has claimed security agencies face “resourcing issues” as the Coalition prepares to demand further reforms to fight antisemitism.
Ley flagged greater resourcing for intelligence agencies at a meeting of her newly formed taskforce on antisemitism, extremism and counter-terrorism on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ley had told reporters there were “genuine concerns” about agency capabilities after Josh Frydenberg said the organisations had failed Jewish Australians. Ley said:
There are genuine questions that have been asked and I focus on the resourcing of our incredible agencies because they do a remarkable job under very difficult circumstances and we value them and they are the best in the world. They need to be properly resourced.
Ley embraced Frydenberg when she arrived at Bondi. People attending the memorial site applauded the former treasurer and some asked him to return to politics, to which he said:
Sussan’s doing an amazing job. We’ll see.
Ley and five Coalition frontbenchers, who along with Michaelia Cash constitute the taskforce, spoke to Jewish community leaders in Bondi before their afternoon meeting. They were scheduled to meet with Jillian Segal, the Albanese government’s antisemitism envoy, later on Wednesday.
Sussan Ley (centre) speaks to the media at the floral tribute in Bondi Pavilion. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/EPAShare
Updated at 08.11 CET
