Bondi shooting updates: Sydney synagogue tells members alleged gunmen stopped outside before attack; injured NSW police officer wakes up from coma

Synagogue writes to members after court documents reveal alleged Bondi terrorists stopped in its vicinity

Sydney’s Emanuel Synagogue has emailed members after court documents revealed the alleged Bondi terrorists, Naveed and Sajid Akram, stopped in its vicinity in the lead-up to the attack in Bondi.

According to the police fact sheet, released Monday by the courts, the pair’s silver Hyundai allegedly arrived at Ocean Street in Woollahra about 5.58pm on Sunday, 14 December.

CCTV footage suggests they were parked across from the synagogue for about 20 minutes, with both men briefly exiting the car.

A black Islamic State flag is allegedly visible in the boot of the car. They then continued their drive to Bondi beach.

A statement from the Jewish security organisation Community Security Group (CSG), shared in the Emanuel email, said:

The NSW Police have today released additional information regarding the conduct and whereabouts of the attackers leading up to the events on Sunday 14 December.

Within this information were details surrounding the duo’s presence in the vicinity of the Emanuel Synagogue in the hours leading up to the attack. They parked their vehicle in the vicinity of the Synagogue, briefly exiting and returning to the vehicle, before driving away.

The vehicle registration was not known to CSG prior to the attack. However, intelligence gathered from the scene enabled us to identify that the vehicle had been outside the Synagogue. This information was promptly shared with NSW Police to assist their investigation.

There is no indication that the attackers intended to target this synagogue – and the area has been deemed safe.

NSW police declined to comment, as the matter is before the courts.

Updated at 06.36 CET

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Rain and storms continue for northern Australia, hot in the west on Christmas Eve

Australians in the country’s north can expect more rain and storms while those in the west should prepare for hot temperatures tomorrow, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The weather bureau’s senior meteorologist, Jonathan How, has released the forecast for Christmas Eve.

In the east, severe thunderstorms remain a possibility near the coast.

In Western Australia, a slow-moving and dominant high-pressure system to the south is causing a lot of hot air to pour over the state.

It’s a different story for the south-east, How says. Cold, southwesterly winds are bringing cold weather to Tasmania and southern Victoria.

Queenslanders can expect rain and storms for almost the entire state apart from the far south west and southern interior, with heavy falls possible in the gulf country and north west.

There will be showers and storms in the north-east of New South Wales, as well as showers in the south coast which are moving north expected to reach Sydney on Christmas morning.

Tomorrow, Sydney and Canberra are both expected to be warm with maximum temperatures of 30 and 20 degrees Celsius, respectively.

In Victoria, a few showers are expected along the southern coastline while the north of the state will be warm and dry. Melbourne is expected to have a maximum temperature of 21 degrees.

It will be even cooler in Tasmania, with the potential for snow to fall as low as 800m above sea level and a top temperature of 16 degrees in Hobart.

In South Australia, southerly winds should keep temperatures up to 5 degrees below the average for this time of year in the state’s south.

But there are severe heatwave conditions forecast for Perth as well as stormy conditions up towards the Pilbara.

In the Top End, widespread storms are expected across the region.

Updated at 07.59 CET

Police officer injured in Bondi terror attack woken from medically induced coma, family says

One of the New South Wales police officers hospitalised after Bondi terror attack has been woken up for the first time since he was placed into a medically induced coma, his family says.

NSW police have shared an update on Const Scott Dyson, who had been attached to the eastern suburbs police area command for 18 months before the mass shooting on 14 December.

In a statement distributed by police this afternoon, Dyson’s family said:

Scott has been in a medically induced coma since the event on Sunday 14 December 2025, and has undergone surgery almost daily.

Our family would like to share that Scott has been getting stronger each day, and today … he was woken up for the first time.

There is still a long way to go in his recovery, but this is a positive sign.

We would like to thank the public for the support, messages and well wishes shown to Scott and our family during this difficult time.

We are also grateful for the tireless work of his medical team.

Our focus remains on Scott’s continued recovery and we kindly ask for our family’s privacy to be respected.

Earlier today, the family of probationary constable Jack Hibbert, the other police officer who was injured and hospitalised during the Bondi shooting, said he had been discharged from hospital.

Updated at 07.00 CET

Douglas Smith

NSW protest laws ‘risk silencing’ First Nations voices after record number of deaths in custody, peak legal service says

New South Wales protest laws “risk silencing” First Nations voices in the lead-up to Invasion Day rallies, with Aboriginal deaths in custody at a record high in the past 12 months, the state’s Aboriginal legal service says.

As Guardian Australia previously reported, more Indigenous people died in custody last year than any year since 1980.

Legislation passed through the state parliament’s lower house on Monday night that would allow NSW government to ban protests for up to three months after a suspected terrorism incident had been declared. The bill is expected to pass the upper house later this afternoon.

It comes after NSW parliament resumed for an emergency sitting to debate new protest laws and gun law reform in the wake of the Bondi terror attack on Sunday 14 December.

The principal legal officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) of NSW/ACT, Nadine Miles, said her organisation was concerned the protest laws came at a time when Aboriginal communities were in crisis.

She said:

The right to protest is a cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

Aboriginal deaths in custody and the incarceration of Aboriginal people are at record highs, both in NSW and nationally.

This is a time of crisis for the communities we serve. It is a time to come together and unite for change, not to risk silencing the voices of Aboriginal people.

The ALS said Aboriginal people had resisted and protested colonisation for more than 200 years, and since the 1938 Day of Mourning, 26 January has been marked as a day of protest and solidarity against the unjust dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The ALS said they were also concerned that the legislation would affect upcoming rallies to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death in custody of David Dungay Jr, a Dunghutti man who died at Long Bay Correctional Centre in late December 2015.

You can read more about last year’s record number of Indigenous deaths in custody here:

Updated at 06.52 CET

Synagogue writes to members after court documents reveal alleged Bondi terrorists stopped in its vicinity

According to the police fact sheet, released Monday by the courts, the pair’s silver Hyundai allegedly arrived at Ocean Street in Woollahra about 5.58pm on Sunday, 14 December.

CCTV footage suggests they were parked across from the synagogue for about 20 minutes, with both men briefly exiting the car.

A black Islamic State flag is allegedly visible in the boot of the car. They then continued their drive to Bondi beach.

A statement from the Jewish security organisation Community Security Group (CSG), shared in the Emanuel email, said:

The NSW Police have today released additional information regarding the conduct and whereabouts of the attackers leading up to the events on Sunday 14 December.

There is no indication that the attackers intended to target this synagogue – and the area has been deemed safe.

NSW police declined to comment, as the matter is before the courts.

Updated at 06.36 CET

Josh Butler

Wayne Swan responds to ECAJ calls for him to resign

The ALP president, Wayne Swan, has responded to the ECAJ calls for him to resign, saying he would continue to engage with Jewish community leaders.

In a statement, shared by a spokesperson, Swan said:

I understand the deep trauma the Jewish community is experiencing following the terrible terrorist attack. I understand that over recent years the Jewish community has experienced increased anxiety and insecurity and that rising antisemitism has had a real impact on their everyday lives.

I’ve had a long association with the Australian Jewish community and I look forward to continuing to support the community and engage with their leaders.

Updated at 06.27 CET

Peak Jewish groups call for Wayne Swan to resign as ALP president

Two peak Jewish groups have called for Wayne Swan to resign as president of the Australian Labor party after he shared a post on X that criticised the people at a Bondi vigil who booed the prime minister.

After Anthony Albanese was booed by some members of the crowd on Sunday at a vigil for the victims of the 15 December terror attack, Swan reposted a post from progressive online commentator Everald Compton that same day that said:

Jewish people boo @AlboMP on arrival at #Bondi vigil but they support #Netanyahu who allowed 1200 Israelis to be slaughtered by Hamas then murdered 70000 innocent people in Gaza.

It is beyond belief that such hypocrisy can become respectable.

In response to Swan’s decision to repost the statement, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry called for him to resign and for Albanese to “disown” him.

In a statement, ECAJ said:

The criticisms of the government are legitimate; the booing was not the right way to express them, and should not have happened.

Yet in the midst of our community’s grief and anguish, we are appalled that a national figure like Wayne Swan chose to re-tweet another person’s post which seized on the booing episode to try to diminish and delegitimise the outpouring of sympathy our community has received from the Australian public.

The tweet, and the implied endorsement of it, was a subtle form of dehumanisation which exemplifies the sewer of antisemitic hatred that has blighted Australian society for the last two years and which helped spawn the murder of 15 innocent people at Bondi Beach.

The president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, made similar comments in his own statement distributed to media this afternoon, calling Swan’s position as ALP president “completely untenable”.

Swan was approached for comment.

Updated at 06.21 CET

NSW police say they have seized multiple firearms during rural crime operation

New South Wales police say they have seized multiple firearms and commenced several investigations after a rural crime operation held in the state’s north-west over the weekend.

Police said during the operation they conducted 61 roadside breath tests and 12 roadside drug tests, and issued 25 traffic infringement notices.

From 19 to 21 December, the force said its Rural Crime Prevention team led a joint operation, assisted by the Central North Police District and the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, to disrupt alleged criminal activity with a focus on allegedly illegal hunting, trespassing, and firearms offences in Nyngan, Walgett, and surrounding areas.

Police said the “incidents of note” included stopping a 35-year-old male driver in Miandetta for a roadside drug test who allegedly returned a positive result for methamphetamine.

The man was arrested for the purpose of a secondary oral fluid test, which also allegedly returned a positive result, police said.

When they searched his vehicle, police said they allegedly seized a rifle, 52 rounds of ammunition, several knives and other items, with investigations continuing.

Separately during the weekend’s operation, police said they served a 27-year-old man with a firearms licence suspension, and allegedly seized several firearms in his possession.

Police have said their inquiries continue.

Updated at 06.21 CET

Penry Buckley

Another Labor backbencher speaks out against NSW protest laws

Returning to the upper house debate on the Minns government’s omnibus bill on gun control, hate speech and protest laws, another Labor backbencher has spoken out against the government’s plans to restrict protests for up to three months after terrorist attacks.

Labor MP Anthony D’Adam has followed his colleague Stephen Lawrence in condemning those who have linked the Bondi attack to pro-Palestine protests, including the march on Sydney Harbour Bridge in August, also attended by Minns government ministers Penny Sharpe and Jihad Dib. He says:

My view is that only two people are responsible for this horrible [alleged] crime, two people, and to entertain arguments around a line of causality that extends beyond those two people, is to absolve those perpetrators of some level of responsibility for their criminal act. I don’t think we should be doing that. Individuals make choices.

We must reject the arguments around the tenuous causality that’s associated with the assumptions that underpin some elements of this legislation, particularly in regard to protest … To apply a blanket ban on protests for a three-month period just seems to be disproportionate to the objective that’s supposedly being pursued.

Both Lawrence and D’Adam will vote with the government on the combined bill, despite their concerns about protest laws.

Updated at 05.53 CET

Catie McLeod

Hello, I hope you’ve had a good day so far. I’ll be with you on the blog until this evening.

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I’m going to hand you over to my colleague Catie McLeod now, who’ll take you through the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Lost Paradise music festival joins NSW pill testing and drug checking trial

Lost Paradise music festival, running over the new year on the NSW Central Coast, will be the eighth festival to take part in the NSW government’s 12-month pill testing and drug checking trial.

The harm reduction program allows festivalgoers to provide a small sample of substances for analysis on-site by qualified health staff, who will give the patron information about what is found in the sample – including potency where possible – and advice on how to reduce risks if they choose to take the substance.

It’s free and anonymous.

In a statement today, the NSW Health department said that while illicit drugs remain illegal in NSW, the trial acknowledges the reality of drug use at music festivals.

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said:

This trial aims to inform individuals about substances, allowing them to avoid dangerous substances, discard high-risk drugs, make safer and more informed choices and potentially avoid serious health risks.

Our priority is to reduce harm and keep people safe.

You can read more about the political background to the pill-testing trial here:

Updated at 04.44 CET

Police officer injured in Bondi attack released discharged from hospital

Probationary constable Jack Hibbert, one of the two police officers who were injured and hospitalised during the Bondi shooting last week, has been discharged from hospital, his family has said.

In a statement shared this afternoon, the family said:

Our family would like to share that Jack has now been discharged from hospital.

While he is home, he is still recovering and will need space, support, and continued positive thoughts during this time.

As a family, we couldn’t ask for anything more – having our Jack home, especially for Christmas, truly feels like a miracle.

We are deeply grateful for the overwhelming support, kind messages, and well wishes from the community, Jack’s colleagues, friends, and the emergency services.

The care and dedication shown by the medical staff has been nothing short of exceptional.

We kindly ask that our family’s privacy be respected as we focus on Jack’s recovery and spend this special time together.

Thank you again for the compassion, love, and support shown to our family.

Jacko you’ve shown strength of a different degree, we are so glad you’re home buddy.

Updated at 04.53 CET

Patrick Commins

Reserve Bank of Australia ‘concerned’ inflation is too high

The Reserve Bank board is “concerned” about the recent pickup in inflation, with newly released minutes confirming the central bank may have to hike rates in 2026.

The RBA at its last meeting kept the cash rate at 3.6%, but with inflation “well above” what had been expected in the September quarter, the minutes show that any thoughts of a rate cut have evaporated.

Members noted the economy appeared to be running a little too hot, and that they may have to tap the brakes with another rate hike “to bring aggregate demand and supply back to balance”.

That said, “members judged that it was too early to determine whether inflation would be more persistent than they had assumed in November”, the minutes read.

NAB’s chief economist, Sally Auld, said the minutes reinforced the “hawkish” tone from the governor, Michele Bullock, and predicted the RBA would hike in February and then again in May.

The next board meeting is on 2–3 February, and follows a key inflation report for the December quarter, due 28 January.

Updated at 04.12 CET

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