Bondi shooting as it happened: Accused terrorist Naveed Akram charged with 15 murders, dozens of offences; Minns flags NSW gun law reform; Frydenberg lashes PM in angry speech

This is where we’ll be leaving today’s live coverage of the aftermath of Sunday’s Bondi terrorist attack, where fifteen victims were killed when a father and son fired at Jewish crowds at a Hanukkah event.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Surviving gunman Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism charges. He declined to be interviewed by police.
• The second shooter, Akram’s father Sajid Akram, 50, was an Indian national, authorities have confirmed. He died at the scene.
• The father and son duo appear to have been inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group.
• NSW Premier Chris Minns will recall parliament next week to tighten gun laws.
• Funerals were held today for Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, who were killed in the attack.
• Further funerals for victims will be held on Thursday, including Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman and the massacre’s youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda.
• As of 7.30pm on Wednesday, 17 people who were injured in the attack remain in hospital.
• Parts of the Bondi crime scene have reopened. Family of the fallen were allowed to walk through the scene today.
• Some New Year’s Eve events in Bondi were cancelled.

We will be back with more live coverage from 5am on Thursday morning.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has advocated for a royal commission into the Bondi terrorist attack and the circumstances leading up to the tragedy.

“There are lots of 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?” he said on the ABC’s 7.30.

“Why was there only three police protecting 1000 Jewish people at a Hanukkah festival in an open space at Bondi, at a time when concerns have been heightened in the security environment?

“Those are practical questions that need to be answered. But also, what were the warning signs over the last two and a half years?”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, asked later on the program if he agreed, said “you don’t want the delays that are involved in a royal commission”, and noted such commissions were not held after the Lindt Cafe siege or the Port Arthur shooting.

“The priority has to be, what actions do we take to keep people safe?” Burke said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was asked on ABC’s 7.30 if ASIO continued to keep tabs on Bondi gunman Naveed Akram after he came to the security agency’s attention in 2019.

He didn’t answer that question, but told host Sarah Ferguson that rapid online radicalisation put extra strain on investigators.

“We’ve had a lot of comments, particularly from [ASIO] Director General Mike Burgess, where he’s been saying for a long time now that we have seen a change in the pace of radicalisation,” Burke said.

He said radicalisation was happening faster and reaching people who previously wouldn’t have been exposed to extreme ideology.

“[It’s] often online, often younger people than it used to be,” he said, adding later in the interview he had full confidence in Australia’s intelligence agencies.

Josh Frydenberg has angrily rebuffed the ABC’s 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson, who asked the former treasurer if the audience should view his criticism of the prime minister through a political lens, given the likely prospect Frydenberg will return to politics.

“I’m deeply offended by what you just said. I’m deeply offended,” Frydenberg responded. “That is an insult to say that there’s any political motivation in this.”

He continued:

The reality is this: I’m an Australian who has to have personal security because my life is endangered in this country, and I was the treasurer of this country.

My children go to a school where there are armed guards outside. When I visit a Jewish aged care centre, there are armed guards outside. When I send my kids to Jewish sporting clubs, there are police cars out there and police tape.

How should we live with this? Why should we live with this? So if I’m not going to speak out, who is? If not now, when?

The maximum penalty for the terrorism and murder charges levelled at Bondi gunman Naveed Akram is life in prison, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a video statement this evening.

Despite Akram’s arrest at his hospital bed this afternoon, the investigation continues in full force, Barrett said.

“There is significant digital material being forensically examined. Further search warrants will be executed, and the AFP is continuing to work closely with our international partners,” Barrett said. A trip the gunmen took to the Philippines last month is under scrutiny.

Barrett continued:

Families will continue to bury their loved ones over the coming days. It is hard not to be moved by the weight of grief that is hanging over Sydney.

It’s a reminder of the cruel and hateful act perpetrated against the Jewish community.

As AFP police commissioner, I say to Jewish Australians, you do not and you should not share this grief alone.

We have seen photos of the beautiful and joyful faces now lost and in them, we see our own loved ones, we see the innocent, and we see our fellow Australians.

I say to all of those who are grieving the loss of life, I will share the weight of this unfathomable grief with you, not just as a police officer who is dedicated to protecting and serving our country, but as a wife, as a mother, as a sister, as a daughter.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has delivered a speech to the huge crowd that turned out at the candlelight vigil at Bondi tonight.

In a speech met with applause from the hundreds of community members who gathered at the Bondi Pavilion forecourt, Ley vowed to “force the government to take the action that it needs to keep Jewish Australians safe”.

The time for action was two years ago. The time for our government to stand strong in the face of Jewish hatred was two years ago. The time to stand firm against hate speech and radical Islam was two years ago.

But here we are.

They came for the Harbour Bridge. Now they’ve come for Bondi, but we will not let them win.

We will not accept an Australia where Jewish people cannot celebrate their faith, cannot walk the streets without armed guards watching closely. Where children have to go to kindergarten behind locked doors.

My message to you is this – if I become prime minister, and you practise hate speech, and you talk about radical Islam in a way that harms and hurts your fellow man and woman, and if you glorify hatred, and you are not an Australian citizen, you will be deported.

And if you are an Australian citizen, you will be arrested.