The Australian federal police’s deputy commissioner for national security will meet Victoria police in Melbourne on Monday to discuss whether Friday’s synagogue firebombing should be declared a terrorist act and whether federal agencies should formally join the investigation.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, both said they considered the attack met the criteria for being declared as terrorism, after opposition criticisms that a determination was taking too long.
Guardian Australia understands that Canberra-based AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett will travel to Melbourne for talks on whether the joint counter-terrorism taskforce should join the investigation into the attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea.
Albanese foreshadowed the talks on Sunday, saying he personally believed the firebombing met the criteria for being labelled a terrorist act but that there was a process to be followed.
“Quite clearly, terrorism is something that is aimed at creating fear in the community,” he said at a news conference in Perth. “And the atrocities that occurred at the synagogue in Melbourne, clearly were designed to create fear in the community and therefore, from my personal perspective, certainly fulfil that definition of terrorism.”
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, had earlier condemned Albanese for being reluctant to offer a view.
“If people are attacking a place of worship, a religious gathering point, then we know that that is a terrorist attack,” he said at a news conference in Tasmania.
Although the AFP and other agencies have been liaising with Victoria police since Friday’s attack, the joint taskforce requires an invitation from the state’s police to formally join the investigation. Engaging the taskforce, which includes Asio, along with federal, state and territory police, would expand the powers and capabilities available for the investigation.
Earlier on Sunday, Dutton accused Albanese of creating the conditions for the attack with what he alleged was the Labor government’s inadequate response to last year’s 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
“We call out every action of antisemitism when we see it,” Albanese said. “There has been a worrying rise in antisemitism, but we call it out, and we call it out consistently, and we work with the community to work through these issues.”
Albanese announced another $32.5m in funding to improve security for the Jewish community, following $25m already allocated.
The independent MP Zoe Daniel, whose Melbourne bayside seat of Goldstein neighbours Macnamara, where the synagogue is located, and is also home to a sizeable Jewish community, wrote to Albanese on Sunday urging him to do more.
Daniel said the rise in antisemitism meant the Jewish community was being disproportionately affected by community tensions and targeted help was warranted.
“It is, however, important to acknowledge that one community’s pain does not cancel out the other,” she said, adding that all places of worship should receive more security support.
She called for a joint federal-state taskforce to consult religious leaders and monitor safety and upgraded hate-crimes laws. Daniel also said religious tolerance and social cohesion should be taught in schools and community activities funded to promote interfaith understanding and respect.
The process for determining whether the attack should be declared a terrorist act is being led by Victoria police, which must assess the perpetrators’ motivation and the impact of their actions against criteria defined in law.
Under the federal Criminal Code Act, an incident is defined as terrorism if it causes death, endangers life or causes serious harm to life or property or puts public health and safety at risk, is done to advance a political, religious or ideological cause, and is done to intentionally intimidate the public or influence a government in Australia or elsewhere.
Earlier on Sunday, senior federal minister Murray Watt also alleged the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue on Friday “looks like terrorism”.
“For me personally, it looks like terrorism, but that’s a judgment that’s got to be made by our domestic security agencies, and I know that they’re working on that at the moment,” Watt told Sky News on Sunday.
“But whatever we label it, it is an absolute outrage. It should never have happened and the people responsible have got to be hunted down and pay a price for this.”
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has announced he is now reviewing the laws around protesting outside places of worship in his state after the attack in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea.
Watt’s comments came after the federal opposition leader echoed the comments of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in effectively blaming the Albanese government for the synagogue attack with what he said was its inadequate response to the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October lasts year.
Dutton accused Albanese of setting “the tone” after the 7 October attack by not more forcefully declaring zero tolerance for antisemitism.
“This is an act of terrorism, pure and simple, and I think the prime minister’s deliberate decision to seek political advantage over the course of the last 12 months on this issue and play to a domestic audience of Green voters, I think has been deplorable and one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in public life,” Dutton told Sky News on Sunday.
He said that if he wins the next election, he will consider withdrawing Australia from the international criminal court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Dutton said the foreign minister, Penny Wong, “should be ashamed” of the stance Australia has taken on the 7 October attacks and the Gaza conflict.
“A very clear message should have been sent at that point, that we have zero tolerance for racism and antisemitism in our country. And I just think these protesters have taken succour from the Labor party approach and the tolerance that the prime minister and Minister Burke and others have demonstrated, and I think it’s left a whole segment of our community living in fear at the moment, which was unnecessary and the leadership should have been demonstrated from day one, but it wasn’t.”
Anthony Albanese met Jewish community members at a synagogue in the seat of Perth on Saturday morning.
“People must be allowed to conduct their faith with peace and respect, and there is no place in Australia for antisemitism,” he said on Sunday.
In relation to Netanyahu’s criticisms of Australia voting for a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories, Albanese noted that only the US, among the Five Eyes intelligence partners, did not support it.
Watt said it was Dutton who was politicising the Melbourne attack.
“This was an absolutely horrific antisemitic attack that I think all Australians, particularly our leaders, should stand together on,” Watt said. “But of course, as he always does, Peter Dutton chooses to try to politicise it and divide our community, rather than try to bring us together.”
The NSW premier said he was horrified at the attack on the Adass Israel synagogue and had asked his attorney general, Michael Daley, and the NSW Cabinet Office to examine options for restricting protests outside places of worship across his state.
“Being heckled on the way in to observe your faith is not consistent with the principles of a multicultural, multi faith community where all are protected by law from someone stopping them from prayer,” Minns said in a written statement.
“Holding the line isn’t enough. We have to go further and ensure that people’s rights to religious freedom of expression and worship is protected.”
