Police and Chris Minns have left Anthony Albanese exposed, and he’s now paying for it

It’s bizarre that Anthony Albanese isn’t publicly demanding a head on a plate and his babbling response to one key question on the investigation is nonsense.

It’s crazy that Anthony Albanese wasn’t told for 10 days of a caravan found in Dural, NSW full of explosives with a list of Jewish targets.

It’s also bizarre that the Prime Minister isn’t publicly demanding a head on a plate.

Albanese is instead babbling that he can’t say when he was told for fear of “undermining an ongoing investigation”.

Nonsense. NSW Premier Chris Minns freely told the media he was told on January 20 that this caravan had been found by a local resident by the side of a road.

The street in Dural where a caravan was found full of explosives with a list of Jewish targets. Picture: Damian Shaw

Yet how much of this mess is really Albanese’s fault? How much should we instead blame the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police and Minns?

The AFP didn’t even tell its minister, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, let alone Albanese. Yet NSW Police briefed Minns.

What’s the difference? Do police think Albanese doesn’t care as much as Minns about anti-Jewish attacks? Is Minns a hard-driver on this, and Albanese a passenger?

Possibly, but it still doesn’t excuse not telling Albanese.

How much of this mess is really Albanese’s fault? Picture: David Geraghty

And what of Minns? The day after police told him about the caravan, Minns joined a telephone hook-up with Albanese to discuss keeping Jews safe. Yet didn’t mention this potential bomb.

I’ve heard police didn’t want many politicians to know for fear the news would leak and disrupt their tactics, but not telling Albanese is odd.

I’m told of an alternative excuse. Was the caravan in fact meant to be found?

Police don’t like suggesting this publicly for fear of being wrong or accused of not taking this threat seriously.

They must assume the worst, so they’re checking whether a crime gang hired low-life street criminals to do the job.

But was that caravan perhaps just meant to be a message?

Who abandons a caravan by a road with explosives, but no detonator, and with a note with too-obvious clues, including the addresses of the Sydney Jewish Museum and Great Synagogue?

Of course, the threat alone is a terrorist act. But it’s also a huge distraction for police, which the masterminds might have been hoping to exploit.

If so, then maybe some police wouldn’t think the Prime Minister had to be told.

Either way, police and Minns have left Albanese exposed, and he’s now paying for it. Maybe that’s partly on him, but it’s also on those who didn’t tell him. Until we’re told their reasons, we cannot know who best to blame.

Originally published as Police and Chris Minns have left Anthony Albanese exposed, and he’s now paying for it