What we learned today, Tuesday 21 January
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here are the day’s main stories:
National cabinet met to discuss antisemitism after a Sydney childcare centre was set alight.
NSW police announced a series of arrests over alleged antisemitism, and the AFP revealed it was investigating whether there were overseas links to incidents.
A second child died after a house fire in Tasmania.
Queensland launched an inquiry into “Australia’s worst paedophile”.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned of a heatwave set to hit Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and NSW in coming days.
Australia should be “realistic” about Donald Trump’s America First agenda, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said.
The NSW transport minister, Jo Haylen, confirmed that negotiations with rail unions had failed, meaning the government will proceed with a case before the Fair Work Commission to end a long-running industrial dispute.
Enjoy the rest of your evening. We will see you again on Wednesday.
Updated
Kershaw said that Special Operation Avalite was targeting high-harm antisemitism and the AFP-led Operation Ardvarna investigated the display of prohibited symbols. He said both operations had made arrests and more were expected soon.
Avalite received 166 reports since it was established in December last year, but Kershaw said many of those reports were duplicates, already under investigation by state police, or did not meet the threshold of a crime.
Avalite was investigating 15 serious allegations, he said.
All lines of inquiry are open to the investigations – including what anonymising technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices, have been used to commit these crimes.
We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.
We are looking at if – or how – they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.
We are looking into whether any young people are involved in carrying out some of these crimes, and if they have been radicalised online and encouraged to commit antisemitic acts.
Kershaw said he would meet with state police commissioners on Wednesday.
Updated
