Australia news as it happened: Israeli president lays wreath at Bondi as court challenge looms; Coalition unites again

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage. As Sydney’s protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog escalates, and Herzog’s speaking event continues, you can follow our dedicated coverage of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Sydney here.

We will return tomorrow with live updates in our national blog and dedicated reporting on day two of President Herzog’s visit and the CFMEU Commission of Inquiry.

Here’s a look back at some of the day’s major stories:

• Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s future is being questioned as she faces a potential leadership challenge from defence spokesperson Angus Taylor. Liberal senator Sarah Henderson described the Coalition’s position as a “true crisis”. MP Andrew Wallace has called the challenge “rumour” and “innuendo” and warned against the “political assassination” of their party’s first female leader.
• One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce has claimed multiple state Coalition MPs have canvassed defecting to One Nation.
• Australian man Brenton Harrison Tarrant convicted of killing 51 worshippers and injuring 40 others in the Christchurch terror attacks, is fighting to overturn “irrational” guilty pleas.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Sydney on Monday morning alongside his wife, Michal, following the Bondi Beach massacre in which 15 people were killed and dozens injured on the first night of Hanukkah. He laid a wreath and stones at the pavilion.
• Palestine Action Group lost a NSW Supreme Court challenge to sweeping powers granted to NSW Police for the Israeli President’s visit to Australia. The NSW government declared Herzog’s visit a major event on Friday under legislation typically used to manage crowds at large sporting events.
• The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has been allocated $131.1 million from the federal budget to investigate the circumstances that led to last December’s Bondi massacre.
• Sydney’s National March against Israeli President Isaac Herzog has turned violent, as dozens of protesters were capsicum-sprayed and injured. Several people were dragged to the ground and arrested.
• About 7000 protesters in Melbourne marched from Flinders Street Station to the State Library of Victoria. Victoria Police confirmed that a 20-year-old woman was arrested after she allegedly burnt two flags, causing minor fire damage to a tram stop near Parliament. She is expected to be charged on summons with wilful damage.

Thanks again for joining us. This is Nicole Precel signing off.

At an event at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Liebler, has introduced President Isaac Herzog with a speech that commended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for inviting the Israeli head of state.

Liebler said the president had called him within hours of the Bondi attack to offer solace and solidarity. Liebler also linked a perceived tolerance for antisemitism in wider Australian society to the causes of the Bondi massacre.

Leibler said:

Here in Australia, we have watched antisemitism creep from the fringe into respectable spaces – into academia, the arts and progressive circles – where our fear is mocked, our history denied, and our right to self-determination put on trial.

In 2026, the respectable way to express antisemitism is through the demonisation of Israel. When Israel is smeared as uniquely evil, “Zionist” becomes a safe word for Jew.

That is why false accusations of genocide and apartheid are not legitimate critique. They are a verdict. A moral inversion designed to strip Jews of legitimacy and turn Jewish survival into a crime.

Bondi reminded us what happens when hatred is tolerated in polite society. It metastasises and destroys from within.

Israel and some of its key leaders and soldiers have been accused of inciting or committing genocide in Gaza by United Nations inquiries and others including the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

Police have capsicum-sprayed protesters and an officer has thrown a punch at a protester breaching the line onto George Street in Sydney.

Several people have been arrested and clashes have become increasingly violent as the rally stretches on.

Well over a thousand people have gathered in the centre of Brisbane, doubling down on chants the Queensland government said this week it planned to make illegal.

Choruses of “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada” could be heard throughout the CBD, as speakers from multiple activist groups and the Greens criticised the visit of Isaac Herzog.

“If a chant that calls for equality for all people is deemed intimidating, then how should we Palestinians feel about the statements of Israel’s president?” organiser Remah Naji said.

At one point a man pushed through the media scrum to abuse Naji, who herself later scolded an ABC journalist asking a question – telling her she didn’t “have a lot of fans here” – as the crowd grew restless.

Herzog is not travelling to Brisbane.

The Queensland LNP government announced on Sunday it planned to criminalise the phrases “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” as part of a hate speech package, with jail time possible.

The protesters have vowed to return on Thursday, as the Israeli president is set to arrive in Melbourne.

They are moving down Swanston Street, chanting, “Palestine will be free/ we are the people”.

Seconds earlier, the whole of Bourke Street Mall was a sea of Palestinian flags, while a crowd of people standing beneath blaring speakers removed their keffiyehs to wave them in the air.