Authorities investigating a spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne are homing in on so called "criminals for hire". The AFP commissioner says there is some evidence of overseas payments, but authorities have been unable to find links between various incidents.
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00:00Federal police are essentially investigating whether overseas actors may have paid criminals
00:07in Australia to carry out some of these anti-Semitic attacks we've been seeing.
00:12The ABC understands that the Australian Federal Police strongly believes that some payments
00:18may have been made, but as to who's behind them and their motivation, that is still unclear.
00:24We do know, though, that authorities haven't yet found any links to foreign governments
00:29nor to any foreign terrorist organisation.
00:34There have been at least eight serious incidents of anti-Semitism over the past three months
00:39in Sydney and Melbourne, and at this stage there have been no links found between each
00:44of those.
00:45The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Rhys Kershaw, has described this investigation
00:50as an incredibly complex one and ultimately says they're not ruling out anything at this
00:54stage.
00:56The AFP's investigative lines of inquiry are looking at whether some individuals have been
01:02paid to carry out some anti-Semitic acts in Australia.
01:07We believe criminals for hire may be behind some incidents.
01:13So part of our inquiries include who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether
01:20they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.
01:27Sources have told the ABC that Commissioner Kershaw's mentioning there of overseas links
01:32has caused a bit of frustration in intelligence circles as well as state enforcement authorities.
01:38Ultimately though, we know the government's been under enormous pressure over this issue,
01:42both from the Coalition as well as the Israeli government, who argue that it's been too slow
01:47to respond and clamp down on these incidents of anti-Semitism.
01:52We did hear from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, earlier today, and he essentially
01:56has called on the Prime Minister to be more forthright about the intelligence he's receiving.
02:02When did the Prime Minister find out that there were foreign players?
02:05Are these state actors or are they organised crime groups or are they anti-Semitic groups?
02:12What did the Prime Minister know?
02:14And frankly it just gives, shines a spotlight on the fact that the Commonwealth Government
02:19should have deployed resources much earlier to what is a rolling series of terrorist incidents
02:24in our country.
02:27And what reaction has there been from the community?
02:30Well essentially there's been calls for social cohesion.
02:32We saw a joint statement earlier today from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils,
02:37Human Rights Watch and the Jewish Council of Australia.
02:40As you'll see here, they're calling on politicians not to politicise this issue.
02:45They say political leaders should condemn recent hate crimes and acts of discrimination.
02:50However, they should not seek to politicise racist attacks for political gain, nor should
02:54political leaders cause further community division or vilification in their response
02:59to attacks.
03:00Human rights protections should not devolve into a game of political point scoring.
03:05Now the government is going to consider legislation to crack down on hate speech when it returns
03:09to Parliament in February and these same groups have been arguing that any legislation
03:14puts forward that needs to be legitimate, necessary and proportionate.
03:18There is one caveat though to that sitting week, it won't happen of course if Anthony
03:22Albanese decides to call an election.