The premier has defended his decision to describe the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives as a potential mass casualty event.
A series of antisemitic attacks across Sydney “unleashed terror” in the Jewish community, the NSW Premier Chris Minns said, afterOn Monday, officers from NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police said a caravan discovered containing explosives in Dural in Sydney’s west and 14 other antisemitic attacks across Sydney’s east were fabricated by organised criminals trying to either distract police or influence a prosecution.
Premier Chris Minns has defended a decision to describe the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives in Sydney’s west as a potential mass casualty event.The shock revelation came as 200 federal and NSW Police swept across the city at dawn, arresting 14 people and laying dozens of charges on Monday morning. Speaking to Ben Fordham on 2GB on Tuesday, Minns said despite the revelation of fabrication of the incidents, “the terror and fear that was struck by these individuals was real”. “It still happened, and it was appalling for the community, particularly the Jewish community in NSW.”Asked whether it was correct to describe the Dural incident as a potential mass casualty event at the time, Minns defended his decision to “jump to the worst-case scenario”. “Obviously, when it was discovered, we and the NSW Police took it equally seriously, and it could have been a mass casualty event. “I think anyone or any reasonable person in those circumstances would expect the government and the police to jump to the worst-case scenario.”He refused to comment on the potential identity of the organised crime figures, and said he to left it to police to reveal the true nature of the plots after their investigations. “Those circumstances change, but I need to let police complete their investigations and I wanted them to break the news and tell the public about the latest information.” The co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin said he did not believe Jewish Australians were safer than previously thought after the police revelations“Ultimately, the things that we’ve seen took place, they weren’t hoaxes. Individuals in our country saw fit to pack a caravan with 40kg of explosives,” he said. “The fact that they weren’t then intending to actually detonate it, I think is a source of relief, but the fact that there are people who would do this, who would carry out fire bombings on residential streets, who would target the Jewish community to spread fear and advance their own personal interests, I think that adds a dose of terror to what’s already transpiring that we’ve seen over the past year alone.”
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