Premier Chris Minns vows to create tougher laws to protect religious freedoms

The Premier has pledged to toughen up laws around protests outside religious buildings, in the wake of demonstrators outside the Great Synagogue of Sydney last week and Friday’s firebomb attack in Melbourne.

The NSW Premier has doubled down on labelling the Melbourne attack an act of terror, describing the attack as an “appalling crime clearly directed at members of the Jewish community”.

“It wasn’t an attack on a milk bar or a corner store,” Premier Chris Minns said.

“Clearly the intent was to strike terror in the hearts of the Jewish population of Australia and as a civic society, as community leaders, we need to stand up against that kind of horrifying, violent attack.”

The Premier did not criticise Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over his two-day delay in using the same language, and rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertions that Albanese’s stance on Gaza at the UN is to blame.

Minns said the Prime Minister has a “lifelong commitment to opposing racism in all its forms”.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns visits the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra on Saturday and is met with members of the Jewish community after anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed across building and cars in recent days. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

“I’ve seen his strong comments this morning, (and) I’d reiterate them as well,” he said.

It comes as the NSW government pursues “urgent changes” to the law to restrict protests outside places of worship including synagogues, to be modelled on existing legislation which makes rallying outside abortion clinics an offence.

Section 11K makes it an offence for anyone within a 150 metre safe access zone to harass, intimidate, interfere with, threaten, hinder, obstruct or impede, by any means, any person accessing or leaving any reproductive health clinic at which abortions are provided - including hospitals.

The “fine legal points” are yet to be ironed out through parliamentary debate however the Premier foreshadowed changes similar to the Section 11K exemption.

“This is not going to be novel legislation, because we have similar provisions in place for other protected institutions,” he said.

MINNS VOWS TO PROTECT

Protests outside religious institutions and places of worship will face tighter regulation – or be outlawed altogether – as Premier Chris Minns declared it was no longer good enough to “hold the line”.

Designed to prevent the scenes of division seen outside the Great Synagogue of Sydney last week, the proposed reforms will aim to protect the right to peaceful assembly without intimidation or vilification of people based on their faith or religion.

The move comes amid “white hot fury” among the Jewish community towards the federal government about the lack of action, visits and engagement by senior Labor ministers.

Describing protests outside of places of religious worship as inflammatory and provocative, Mr Minns said he had been horrified at the Melbourne synagogue firebombing and protests in Sydney.

The Premier, who received a standing ovation after speaking at the Central Synagogue at Bondi in the wake of the attack, said the government needed to go further to ensure that people’s rights to religious freedom of expression and worship were protected.

Premier Chris Minns during a visit to the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra after anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed across building and cars. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“I am horrified by the attack at the Addas Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, and the recent sight of protests out the front of a religious institution,” Mr Minns said.

“Being heckled on the way in to observe your faith is not consistent with the principles of a multicultural, multi-faith community where all are protected by law from someone stopping them from prayer.

“Holding the line isn’t enough,” the Premier said.

“We have to go further and ensure that people’s rights to religious freedom of expression and worship is protected. It is the bedrock of our multicultural state.

“People have the right to feel safe in their own city, in their own churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship.”

He said he had asked the Attorney-General and the Cabinet Office to look at ways to better protect places of worship from protests and provide reform options to government.

Police checking in on Sydney’s Central Synagogue on Saturday, after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed the day before. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Unlike many of his federal counterparts, Mr Minns has declared the Melbourne attack as “an act of terrorism” – going further than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been under siege for not following suit.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten, when asked on Friday if the synagogue firebombing was an act of domestic terrorism, also said that even without knowing precisely the exact identity of the perpetrator – which he declared was a matter for police – that: “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is”.

Mr Shorten, who visited the Melbourne synagogue after the attack, also said the firebombing was not of a “milk bar” or “factory”, before releasing a strong statement declaring how “as a nation” Australians needed to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish community and embrace them, support them and speak out in their hours of need like William Cooper did in 1938 after Kristallnacht.”

Indigenous elder Cooper led a march to the German consulate after Kristallnacht, when Jewish homes and businesses in Germany were targeted by Nazi thugs.

German officials refused to take his written condemnation of the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government in Germany” but the protest is seen by many as the only one of its kind in the world.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed she had spoken to her Victorian counterpart following the arson attack on the synagogue to determine whether there is any intelligence related to potential threats in Sydney.

Ms Webb spoke to Chief Commissioner Shane Patton on Friday and said while there was nothing to suggest any immediate threat, police had already increased patrols and would be highly visible in key places across Sydney.

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