NSW Police think caravan of explosives were for antisemitic attack
CARAVAN OF EXPLOSIVES
New South Wales Police are investigating whether explosives discovered in a caravan at a property in greater Sydney were intended for an antisemitic attack, the ABC reports in its lead story this morning.
The AAP says the caravan was left beside the property in Dural for 12 days before it was reported.
“That caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack,” NSW Police deputy commissioner David Hudson said on Wednesday.
The newswire says a note found inside the caravan contained addresses of Jewish people and a synagogue.
It added police are treating the incident “as a credible terror threat and have assigned more than 100 counter-terrorism detectives to investigate those behind the plot, which was discovered on January 19”.
NSW Police are working with the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, Victoria Police, the Queensland Police Service and the NSW Crime Commission to investigate the incident.
The ABC says the explosives found in the caravan had a blast zone radius of 40 metres in diameter.
Deputy commissioner Hudson said arrests “have been made on the periphery of this job”, adding: “But we are still looking for assistance in relation to anyone who saw that caravan by the side of the road from December 7 to January 19 this year in Dural.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns said: “This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event,” adding the full resources of the state and NSW Police “have been deployed to confront this very serious threat to our community”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “The full might of the AFP, ASIO and NSW Police are being utilised in this major investigation by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team. Hate and extremism have no place in Australian society.”
Guardian Australia has compiled a list of what is known about the investigation so far. The site highlights that police have also said there is no ongoing threat to the community in relation to the caravan.
The incident is the top news story across pretty much every major publication and news site, with The Australian also drawing attention to the latest regarding Australian soldier Oscar Jenkins. Russia’s ambassador to Australia has told the Albanese government that Jenkins is in custody, not dead as previously feared.
The paper said Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, had welcomed the news, but said Russia was a “murderous misinformation machine that cannot be taken at its word alone”.
“We should strongly note that Russia is documented as killing and maltreating prisoners of war, as well as constantly lying on an industrial scale,” he said. “In line with international norms, Russia must therefore provide definitive video proof of Oscar being alive and, then more importantly, it should release him rather than use him as a human bargaining chip for its authoritarian aims.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has said: “If Russia does not provide Mr Jenkins the protections he is entitled to under international humanitarian law, our response will be unequivocal.”
TO CUT OR NOT TO CUT
Yesterday’s inflation data has generated plenty of headlines and analysis (see The Commentariat below) overnight.
On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the annual headline inflation figure was 0.2% for the December quarter and 2.4% for the year, which as the ABC points out is down from a peak of 7.8% two years ago.
The broadcaster added the annual trimmed mean came in at 3.2%, also below forecasts and a slowdown from the previous quarter.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night: “Today’s numbers are incredibly encouraging, we are making substantial and sustained progress in the fight against inflation on all of these measurable fronts.
“These outcomes are better than expected, they are better than forecast, they’re very encouraging, but we know that it’s not mission accomplished on inflation. We know that the cost of living pressures haven’t disappeared but they have eased substantially and that’s been a deliberate part of our economic strategy.”
Where everyone has obviously gone next with their coverage is, does this all mean the Reserve Bank of Australia will finally cut interest rates? And if so, when?
The Australian Financial Review quotes Chalmers as saying on Wednesday: “I respect the independence of the Reserve Bank too much to try and make predictions or to give them free advice or try and colour in for them the decision they will make independently towards the middle of February.”
Sure, but boy oh boy would he and his boss like the RBA to announce a cut at the board’s next meeting.
If the central bank doesn’t announce a cut (some analysts have said the RBA could point to recent jobs figures as a reason not to), the wait will continue until the board meeting at the beginning of April. The ramifications for when Anthony Albanese calls the federal election are obvious.
The Labor government’s nerves may be calmed a bit by the ABC saying odds of an interest rate cut next month have “skyrocketed to 95%”. Obviously, the only people who really know are the board and many have been burnt before trying to predict governor Michele Bullock.
Guardian Australia also points out that an interest rate cut doesn’t always answer a battling government’s prayers, drawing attention to the fact the Federal Reserve delivered a significant cut in September, not long before the US election. And we all know how that went.
As Jonathan Barrett puts it in his analysis: “The Democrats, then in power, seized on the decision as evidence of their inflation-fighting work, before being soundly beaten just weeks later, with the cost of living crisis too firmly entrenched for voters to change their minds.”
Barrett highlights shadow treasurer Angus Taylor saying yesterday that Chalmers had been “patting himself on the back” when the “pain is far from over”. Taylor added: “We’ve got a treasurer more interested in spin than substance, more interested in rhetoric than reality, but the reality of Australian families and Australian businesses — and we’ve seen it here today — is the pain continues.”
The US Federal Reserve is itself back in the news, holding rates steady today after cutting its key interest rate a full percentage point last year.
CNN states there ”hasn’t been much improvement on the inflation front over the past few months as fears over the job market’s health have faded”. The Financial Times reports analysts had been calling on Fed chair Jay Powell to resist White House pressure “if he is to retain the confidence of markets and avoid unleashing a new wave of inflation”.
The paper recalls US President Donald Trump said last week: “I think I know interest rates much better than they do, and I think I know them certainly much better than the one who’s primarily in charge of making that decision. I’d like to see [interest rates] come down a lot.”
Elsewhere in Trump watch:
- CNN reports The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded the federal aid freeze that caused so much anger yesterday.
- Trump’s US health secretary pick, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is being grilled by senators at his confirmation hearing. You can follow it here.
- As Axios previously reported, Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House, The Guardian reports. The invitation is for a meeting on February 4.
- Trump has offered eight months pay to federal employees who quit their jobs, Sky News says. They have until February 6 to decide.
- The UK’s new ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, has appeared on Fox News and attempted to explain his previous criticism of Trump, stating: “I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong. I think that times and attitudes toward the president have changed.”
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Do you like pandas? Do you want to see a video of 25 newborn pandas making their first public appearance?
OK, here you go.
The cubs from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province said hello to the world last week, Reuters reports.
“The event featured two groups of panda cubs born in 2024 sending Chinese Lunar New Year greetings to people worldwide”, the newswire said.
Reuters claims the CCRCGP has been building a platform for panda protection and research, and, with the Chengdu Research Base, has worked on promoting genetic diversity in the captive panda population.
However, CNN reports how “some animal rights activists and panda fans have targeted researchers and scientists involved in China’s panda breeding program”.
Say What?
She is entitled to her views, but I have text messages [from people in the Liberal Party] regarding her being a woman.
Warren Mundine
Guardian Australia says the prominent anti-Voice campaigner has walked back his comments to the ABC after Gisele Kapterian beat him to be the preselected Liberal candidate for Bradfield. He told Guardian Australia he will do everything possible to get Kapterian elected to federal Parliament after Kapterian called his claim she had been selected because she was a woman “disrespectful”.
CRIKEY RECAP
Among Anthony’s criticisms was that my explicit t-shirt “was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for”, namely the award nominees, their guests, fellow alumni and National Australia Day Council members in attendance.
Surely these were not the same people who asked to take selfies with me wearing the t-shirt in the courtyard, who commended me for taking a stand and staying true to myself? These people — including medical doctors, academics, scientists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, athletes, advocates and even a former soldier who proudly showed me their own anti-Murdoch merchandise? As I was leaving The Lodge, one of the prime minister’s staff remarked, “There are many of us here who wish we could wear that shirt.” Afterwards, journalists wanted to pose beside me.
Each of us at the event has one thing in common: we are trying to make a positive difference. It’s all well and good for hardworking individuals and grassroots organisations to tinker around the edges of broken systems, but we are fighting an unfair fight. Hovering above us is a small cohort whose concentration of wealth is big enough to fund any number of groundbreaking, lifesaving initiatives, but who consistently choose to grow their own power instead. Should any of our causes threaten their way of life, they can simply derail them and rewrite history.
Just a week before Anthony Albanese announced his government would introduce “world-first” legislation to ban teens from social media, there was still one big detail that hadn’t been decided: what ages were they banning?
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland was still telling people the government was “finalising” the age at which Australian kids would be banned from having accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms, according to her talking points.
Meanwhile, Department of Communication staff were working under the assumption of a specific age limit — one that appears to be different to what the government ultimately chose. When the government later published this public servant-prepared analysis showing evidence supporting its law, little else had changed other than the age for the ban. Essentially, the government had kept the same working for its equation but now said it added up to a different answer.
This insight into the last-minute decisions in the government’s flagship tech policy, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024, comes from internal documents Crikey obtained through freedom of information requests, interviews with sources with knowledge of the process, and even details seemingly accidentally left in public documents.
While it’s common for legislation to change up until it has passed both houses, the eleventh-hour alterations have bolstered the criticism from academics, youth and mental health advocacy groups, and tech companies that the law was rushed through and its consequences were not fully fleshed out before it was passed.
To distract from its failings, Queensland Police, in tandem with the Courier-Mail and the LNP, ran a relentless campaign on youth crime. Never mind that the QPS’ own data showed rates were at near-record lows.
Despite being a state issue, campaigning on crime is natural territory for a former cop like Peter Dutton. The Queensland election last October was an exercise in fear and loathing, foreshadowing the federal campaign ahead.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
WA premier warns East Coast latte sippers over ‘nature positive’ laws (AFR)
Chemist Warehouse billionaires seal $34bn deal in Melbourne’s gritty north (The Australian) ($)
Sydney to host 2027 Rugby World Cup final as Melbourne secures 11th-hour deal (The Sydney Morning Herald) ($)
Russia tight-lipped on Syrian demand of al-Assad for military bases (al-Jazeera)
Thirty killed in crowd crush at India’s Kumbh Mela festival (BBC)
OpenAI furious DeepSeek might have stolen all the data OpenAI stole from us (404 Media)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Cut, Bullock, cut! Inflation figures give RBA no choice but to lower rates — Shane Wright (The Age): Now, with at least six weeks between board gatherings, trying to avoid an election campaign rate cut would run the real risk of holding the cash rate steady until at least the middle of May, if not later.
Not only would that undermine perceptions of the RBA’s independence, it would have substantial economic ramifications.
Bank governor Michele Bullock has held a strong line since taking over the RBA, running the case that interest rate increases — while painful — were necessary to bring inflation to heel.
Wednesday’s figures suggest that pain has succeeded and that it’s time to give the economy some reprieve. She and the rest of the RBA board have no other option.
Labor ready for a rate cut to break poll deadlock — Phillip Coorey (AFR): But, no doubt, should the RBA lower rates when it next meets on February 18, it will put wind in Labor sails. It will signal to a weary electorate the worm has turned. It is the last shot in the locker Labor has to break the poll deadlock.
One suspects Albanese and his brain trust may delay the final decision on an election date until then. If the RBA does move on February 18, it would make sense to abort plans for a March 25 budget and call an election for April 12, which is the earliest date if the PM doesn’t want to get in the way of the March 8 West Australian election.
The RBA meets again on April 1. If the planets align, there could be two rate cuts before an April 12 election.
Otherwise, a budget, followed by a May 17 election, the last possible date, remains the Hail Mary option. The government is going through the motions of preparing the budget but sounds unconvincing as to how committed it is.
