Police vow to protect Brisbane’s Jewish community as events go ahead

Follow our live coverage of the Bondi Beach shooting here.

Police were ramping up their presence at Queensland’s Jewish events after Sunday’s massacre at Bondi, as their acting chief declared that there were no specific threats to gatherings in coming days.

While one Hanukkah event was cancelled on the Gold Coast, Jewish community members chose not to abandon a celebration in Brisbane’s CBD on Sunday night, and other events this week were expected to go ahead.

One Sunshine Coast rabbi told this masthead that “cancelling would only grant the evil people what they want”.

The Gold Coast event was originally expected to draw hundreds of people to a public park on Monday night to mark the second night of Hanukkah.

On Monday morning, the Queensland Holocaust Museum’s chair Jason Steinberg said it would be cancelled, following advice from police, in a reflection of concern among members of south-east Queensland’s Jewish community.

But he said local Friday and Saturday services for the Sabbath would go ahead.

“One thing that is crucial for us as a religion is to keep practising, and we won’t let terror influence what we do as a community, to stop practising our religion,” he said.

He spoke to media before a meeting with Premier David Crisafulli, where he planned to advocate for gun law changes after the carnage at Bondi Beach, when 16 people were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, and dozens more hospitalised.

“I’d be asking the premier to advocate hard for action. Forget words, it’s time for action,” said Steinberg, who was at the event in Queens Park when news of the mass shooting filtered through.

“How could someone have a gun licence and then perpetrate this kind of action? How does that happen?”

Acting Police Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said decisions were up to Jewish leaders, but police would support them in making their assessments.

She assured the community that the threat of violence was isolated to NSW, and that Queensland’s threat level remains at probable, in line with federal assessments.

“People need to have an opportunity to gather in their normal places of worship and that’s what we want people to do, to be able to do that and you know not have that disruption,” she said.

When asked whether Queensland was seeing a rise in antisemitism, Scanlon said: “I think the world has changed. We have seen things here. We have hate crime offences ... we have managed protest activity here ... things have shifted, things have increased and that’s generally what you see right across the country.”

National cabinet agrees to strengthen gun laws

Authorities have revealed one of the Bondi shooters legally owned six firearms, bringing state and territory gun laws into question. Last year, work began on the national firearms register, which would combine information from federal, state and territory databases into one central system.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would propose tougher gun laws, including measures to limit the number of firearms people could hold. NSW Premier Chris Minns also confirmed change was needed to reform gun legislation.

Asked about gun law reform, Scanlon would not be drawn on her opinion, but said the national firearms register would be “a very important thing for this country”.

The Bondi massacre, deemed a terrorist attack, comes three years after two constables and a neighbour were gunned down at rural town Wieambilla in one of Queensland’s worst shootings.

State Coroner Terry Ryan recently recommended Queensland undertake a review to consider the introduction of mandatory mental health assessments for weapons licence applicants.

Scanlon said policies around mental health checks for gun owners were matters for the government to consider, and said there would be more discussion nationally.

“This is a distressing incident for all involved,” she said, adding that acts of antisemitism had no place in Queensland or Australia.

“This is a moment for national unity to ensure events such as these don’t divide us.”

Crisafulli’s office declined to respond to direct questions about support for changes to gun laws.

However, in a statement on Monday afternoon following the meeting of national cabinet, the group said all states had agreed to strengthen them.

Under the announced approach, Police Minister Dan Purdie and Attorney-General Deb Frecklington will be tasked with developing options alongside their interstate counterparts.

These will include accelerating work on the national register, tightened licensing restrictions – including to Australian citizens only – and limiting the number of guns a person can own.

With Matt Dennien

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