Australia news live: Chris Minns condemns ‘shocking’ overnight vandalism in Sydney involving anti-Israel graffiti
NSW premier condemns vandalism in Woollahra
NSW premier Chris Minns quickly condemned the vandalism in Woollahra, which he called a “shocking” antisemitic attack. He said:
This is not the Sydney we want. These racist attempts to divide our city won’t work. I’ll speaking to police this morning. [The vandals] will be found and they will face the full force of the law.
Key events
Bowen condemns anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney overnight
The energy and climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is also up on ABC radio this morning, where he has responded to the anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in Sydney overnight:
All Australians of goodwill would be outraged. Obviously, I’ve only seen the report in the last little while, but it is deeply distressing, and we join with the community in condemning what is clearly an antisemitic attack on Australians going about their everyday life …
I think the most important thing is that community and government come together … [We need to] work even harder to combat antisemitism and condemn it in all its force.
Fletcher says he isn’t sure ‘what the term culture war actually means’
Does Paul Fletcher agree with sentiments shared by fellow moderate Simon Birmingham as he prepares to leave politics – to avoid culture wars?
Fletcher responded that the most important thing for the Liberals to do is provide “a clear alternative for the Australian people given the grim economic circumstances that we face”.
Pressed on the issue, he responded that “I’m not entirely sure what the term culture war actually means”, instead pointing back to economic management.
At the moment, Australia’s prosperity is under real threat, our productivity is collapsing, the only growth is coming from the public sector …
Paul Fletcher confident Liberals will pick up new seats at next election
Yesterday, Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher announced he would not re-contest the next election.
He spoke with ABC radio just a moment ago and was asked if he was concerned about a loss of moderate voices in the party – after Liberal senator Simon Birmingham also announced he would leave politics at the next election.
Fletcher said he “wouldn’t agree with that characterisation”.
The Liberal party is at its strongest when it has senior people, and people across the party room, from all of the different strands and philosophical traditions that make up our party …
There’ll be more able people coming into the party room around the country at the next election. I think we can confidently say there are people who are going to win seats that are not presently Liberal seats.
So I’m confident that the different strands, the varying strands of Liberal philosophical tradition, will continue to be well represented at the party room.
Photos: anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra
Here is a photo of the anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in Sydney that NSW police are investigating (see more earlier in the blog).
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties. Thanks to Martin for kicking things off – I’ll be with you for most of today as we take you through our rolling coverage.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
Minns says antisemitism at all-time high
Chris Minns said he had received briefings saying antisemitism was at an all-time high:
We have, per capita, the largest number of Holocaust survivors after Israel in the world. They came to Australia precisely because it was a safe place where you can practice your religion free of discrimination or hate.
It’s up to civic leaders, political leaders, to protect those institutions and protect that culture.
Minns flags ‘massive’ response from police in coming days
On ABC radio this morning, NSW premier Chris Minns said it would be “wilful” to turn a blind eye and say the overnight vandalism in Woollahra was “anything other than an antisemitic attack”. He said:
The location of the crime, the suggestion [in the graffiti] that they should kill Israel, the sequence of events following the burning down of a synagogue in Melbourne, the attacks in Sydney several weeks ago, the demonstrations outside religious institutions.
The premier said there had to be “zero tolerance when it comes to people that want to … rip apart our community”.
He said there would be a “massive” response from police in coming days.
Telstra pays $3m fine for triple-zero disruption
Josh Taylor
Telstra has paid a $3m fine to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) over an disruption to its triple-zero emergency call centre in the early hours of 1 March this year.
The issue occurred due to a high volume of registration requests the centre had received from medical alert devices at 3.30am, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said in a blog post explaining the outage last month. It coincided with other system activity that triggered a fault and required the use of a backup, which had incorrect phone numbers for eight of the 24 state emergency operators.
The result was for 90 minutes around 148 of the 494 calls made in that time were not transferred to emergency services, though ultimately 127 of these went through a manual email and callback process, with the remaining 21 advising they did not require emergency assistance.
Acma’s consumer lead, Samantha Yorke, said it was concerning Telstra had neglected to update its backup phone data as the emergency call provider, but that the company had a “strong record of compliance” in this role and made considerable efforts to keep the public informed during the outage.
Telstra has been open and apologetic about the outage, communicated effectively to the public and took a variety of immediate actions when problems were identified. These actions go a long way to restoring the community’s trust in this critical service.
NSW premier condemns vandalism in Woollahra
NSW premier Chris Minns quickly condemned the vandalism in Woollahra, which he called a “shocking” antisemitic attack. He said:
This is not the Sydney we want. These racist attempts to divide our city won’t work. I’ll speaking to police this morning. [The vandals] will be found and they will face the full force of the law.
Anti-Israel graffiti attack on cars in eastern Sydney
Police are investigating after cars and buildings were vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney’s east.
About 1am this morning, emergency services responded to reports of a vehicle on fire in Magney Street, Woollahra, NSW police said in a statement.
This vehicle, along with another, two buildings and the footpath along Magney Street, had been graffitied.
Images shown in multiple media reports show some of the graffiti was anti-Israel.
Police said they wished to speak with two people believed to have been in the vicinity at the time. They are described as of slim build, between 15-20 years of age, wearing face coverings, and dark clothing.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the morning stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind to take the wheel.
Police are investigating after vehicles and buildings were damaged in Sydney’s eastern suburbs: a car was set on fire and buildings were daubed with anti-Israel graffiti. The premier, Chris Minns, called it a “shocking” antisemitic attack. More on this coming up.
With the Reserve Bank cutting off the economic escape route for Labor with every passing month, Anthony Albanese will dangle a big childcare subsidy to voters today in his government’s latest bid to wrestle the cost-of-living beast to the ground. We’ll have all the details when he speaks later this morning.
Peter Dutton is this week expected to announce the long-awaited costings for his plan to build nuclear reactors in Australia. It comes as a former CSIRO energy director has said Dutton’s suggestion that the agency’s damning report on the cost of nuclear energy was influenced by the government is “incredibly disappointing” and “absurd”.
Telstra announced overnight that it has paid a $3m fine to the Australian Communications and Media Authority over a disruption to its triple-zero emergency call centre in the early hours of 1 March this year. More coming up.
