Anthony Albanese says it appears some of the perpetrators behind a spate of antisemitic attacks in New South Wales and Victoria were paid actors rather than ideologically motivated offenders, seemingly confirming the target of police investigations.
Hours later, the Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, said that authorities were probing whether potential “criminals for hire” were behind at least some of the recent incidents, warning it could be a long investigation.
Albanese faced a string of questions on Wednesday morning after Kershaw on Tuesday revealed federal police were investigating if overseas actors were paying local agents to carry out antisemitic attacks in Australia, including in cryptocurrency.
The lines of inquiry also included the possibility that young people were being radicalised online to commit antisemitic attacks. The Coalition had separately raised concerns about whether organised terror groups were involved, but Kershaw did not specifically raise this as a possibility. It was not believed at this stage that terrorist cells were linked to the spate of attacks.
“These investigative lines of inquiry are looking at whether some individuals have been paid to carry out some antisemitic acts in Australia. We believe criminals for hire may be behind some incidents,” Kershaw said in an additional statement on Wednesday.
“Part of our inquiries include who is paying those criminals. Where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.”
Albanese would not disclose further details about the AFP investigation, or speculate on which country the foreign actors potentially behind the attacks might be from.
But he did confirm that paid actors, rather than people motivated by anti-Jewish ideology, were believed to be behind the attacks.
“I’m reluctant to say anything that compromises those investigations,” he said. “But it is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from, and it would appear, as the AFP commissioner said yesterday, that some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, asked why Albanese had not previously discussed the AFP’s investigation publicly.
“When did the prime minister find out that there were foreign players? Are these state actors or organised crime groups? Or are they antisemitic groups? What did the prime minister know?” he said.
“With respect, I understand the desire for more information.”
On ABC’s RN Breakfast earlier in the morning, the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, also said the suggestion of potential overseas involvement was a “gravely serious claim” that warranted urgent clarification from the prime minister.
“This either means, if it is true, if it is confirmed, that a transnational terrorist organisation is sponsoring attacks in Australia or potentially that a foreign government is engaging in state-sponsored terror targeting the Jewish community,” he said.
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“Now to put claims like this out there would make it the most serious domestic security crisis in peacetime in Australia’s history and will cause incredible alarm within the Jewish community.
“So a lot more information is required about this claim.”
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, defended the decision not to release more specific information about the AFP’s investigations and lines of inquiry, calling Paterson’s demands for more information “potentially naive”.
“The Australian federal police will have very deliberate reasons for what they put out in the public and when they do it,” he told Radio National.
“They make decisions that are designed to advance investigations. I’m not able to add to anything that’s been put out there … they should put out the information they think helps with the investigation.”
In his statement released ahead of Tuesday’s snap national cabinet meeting, Kershaw said the federal-led Operation Avalite into antisemitism had received 166 reports, with 15 under investigation.
Albanese said after the meeting that 36 people had been charged with “antisemitic related offences” in NSW and 70 arrests had been made in Victoria.
NSW police on Wednesday morning charged a man for allegedly trying to set fire to a synagogue in Newtown, in Sydney’s inner west, earlier in the month and Burke said “there will be more” arrests and charges levelled against those allegedly behind such incidents.