A caravan packed with explosives? Sydney’s Jewish community deserves better than 10 days of silence

A hastily convened press conference in which NSW Premier Chris Minns and Deputy NSW Police Commissioner Dave Hudson belatedly revealed details of a potential mass casualty terror attack in Sydney has raised more questions than it answered.

Jewish residents already fear for their lives following an escalating series of antisemitic attacks across the city. Places of worship have been vandalised. A childcare centre near a Maroubra synagogue has been firebombed. Cars outside the former Dover Heights home of Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, were also incinerated in a targeted attack.

Wednesday’s press conference was not planned. Police and the government clearly had no intention of telling the public - yet. Credit: SMH

The chilling discovery of a caravan containing the address of a Sydney synagogue and laden with enough stolen mining explosives to create a 40-metre blast radius will turn existing fear into outright terror.

This spate of violence has reached horrifying new levels and the public deserves nothing less than the full facts, and in a timely manner. The Jewish community will understandably question why police and the NSW government did not tell the public about the discovery when it was first made 10 days ago.

Events moved rapidly on Wednesday afternoon after details of the caravan’s contents and the existence of a secret joint-counter terror investigation were leaked to the Daily Telegraph. Many facts are unknown and not all information is in the public domain. What we do know is that the caravan was sitting on the side of a road in Dural, in Sydney’s north-west, for several weeks before a concerned local took it onto his property, looked inside and got the shock of his life.

That was more than a week ago, on January 19. A joint counter-terrorism team, which combines state and Commonwealth agencies including the Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, was later formed and more than 100 officers tasked with catching the perpetrators.

Minns was briefed on January 20. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also briefed, though his office won’t say when. Sensing community unease over the 10-day window between the caravan’s discovery and public revelation, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Wednesday night said it was “incumbent on the federal government to say when they knew about this sickening incident, who is behind it, and what steps they took to protect Australia’s Jewish community”.

What is also clear is that Wednesday’s press conference was not planned. Police and the government clearly had no intention of telling the public – yet – of the discovery of the caravan 10 days ago, or the existence of a massive counter-terror investigation. Their hand was forced by a leak.

Some may find the leak irresponsible on the basis it may jeopardise police efforts to covertly hunt perpetrators. That was not an unreasonable point made by Hudson on Wednesday. “There are ongoing investigations which need to be conducted [and] ideally those investigations are conducted with some form of anonymity,” he said.

But others will passionately disagree. Many Jewish residents already living in fear and making daily decisions about their personal safety will have wanted to know, so those decisions could be better informed.

Where the Herald believes arguments in favour of a discreet investigation fall down is that the 10 days of silence have not yielded full results. While police say they have made arrests “on the periphery”, no person has yet been arrested and charged in connection with the explosives.

Also pressed on why he stayed silent, Minns seemed angry and said any fair-minded person would recognise he takes antisemitism seriously and that he has never promised the threat from hatred has passed. That is all true.

But could he and the police have spoken out sooner? That’s something several Jewish groups – who have for many months had a strong relationship with Minns – are now asking.

They also aren’t sold on assurances that the caravan’s discovery means the ongoing threat to Sydney from this incident is minimal. Scepticism around this claim from police is reasonable given no person has been charged, and the fact police aren’t sure which mine site the explosives were stolen from. How can people feel safe when the perpetrators or their enablers may be walking the street?

The Herald reported on Wednesday night that the caravan’s owner is in police custody, which should offer some relief. But the owner was arrested in relation to a different matter. And even if the owner is eventually charged, it’s not certain they are the only person involved.

The Herald has one final question that Wednesday’s press conference didn’t answer: where the hell was NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb? Once again she was missing when it mattered. If she can’t show up at a public announcement of this magnitude, she probably should not bother showing up for the rest of her term as commissioner.

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