‘I did some exercise’: Albanese returns serve over tennis photos

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his decision to play tennis on Saturday afternoon in Perth a day after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed before dawn by masked invaders as people prayed inside.

While the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea had not been formally declared a terror attack on Saturday, there was growing pressure for such a call to be made.

Anthony Albanese takes a selfie after playing tennis in Perth.

The attack was formally declared a terrorist attack by police agencies on Monday.

Albanese was in Perth for three days to discuss the federal government’s critical minerals strategy and announce $21 million in funding for five companies, while opening the new METRONET train line.

The Australian newspaper on Monday reported that Albanese, an avid tennis player, was seen at Perth’s Cottesloe Tennis Club at 2.30pm on Saturday, the same day he visited a synagogue to express solidarity with the Jewish community.

Asked if it had been an error of judgment to play tennis on Saturday afternoon when the Jewish community in Melbourne was in shock, Albanese said he had had “six appointments on Saturday. After they had concluded late in the afternoon, I did some exercise. That’s what people do”.

A social media photo showing Anthony Albanese playing tennis in Perth.

“On Saturday morning, I was in a synagogue. I’ve seen some comments in the media about why there wasn’t media coverage there. That was because it was Shabbat and, as people can confirm, photos and electronic information wasn’t available then,” he said.

“Indeed, I attended the bar mitzvah of a young boy there, and I was very much welcomed there.”

Cottesloe president Rob Wilde said the prime minister had stayed for about two hours at the club – between 2.30pm and 4.30pm – on a surprise visit and had proved to be a good player.

“It was a pleasure to have him visit our club,” Wilde said.

On Saturday, former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg called on Albanese to declare the firebombing a terrorist attack and create a national police taskforce to combat antisemitism.

“The prime minister doesn’t speak out with any conviction, with any clarity; without any courage against the misuse of that terminology,” Frydenberg said. “This is not about other forms of hate – this is not about Islamophobia.

“If there’s a fence to sit on, he finds it. He gives us mealy-mouthed words that mean nothing and lead to nothing.”

The prime minister on Saturday said he wanted the alleged arsonists behind the “un-Australian and antisemitic” synagogue fire caught and to face the full force of the law, and defended the government’s contentious voting record in the United Nations that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “impossible to separate” from the arson.

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