Bondi Beach shooting: Live updates as first funerals for victims begin, new details emerge on Sajid Akram

Josh Frydenberg says since the October 7 attacks in 2023, Jewish Australians have been failed by an Australian Government that ignored their warnings over dangerous, rising antisemitism.

Mr Frydenberg detailed multiple anti-Semitic events in Australia since October 7, including celebrations at the Opera House where, he says, gatherers chanted “gas the Jews”, something NSW Police didn’t accept, doxxing incidents, cancelling of Jewish artists, boycotting of Jewish businesses, graffiti on Jewish Schools, incidents at universities, firebombing of synagogues, anti-Semitic messages sprayed on explosive filled caravans and more.

“Our governments have failed every Australian when it comes to fighting hate and antisemitism,” he said.

“Our prime minister, our government, has allowed Australia to be radicalised on his watch.

“It is time for him to accept personal responsibility for the death of the innocent people, including a 10-year-old child.

“It is time our prime minister accepted accountability for what has happened here. And it’s time our leaders stood up and led at last. This is a time for accountability and action.

The detective who fired the shots that brought an end to Sunday’s Bondi massacre has been identified as Detective Senior Constable Cesar “Cess” Barraza, as reported by The Daily Telegraph.

Det. Sen Const Barraza, a Bondi local, put his life on the line when he confronted the alleged terrorists on a footbridge.

From around 40 metres away, he fired the shots that fatally struck Sajid Akram, 50, and are believed to have seriously wounded his son, Naveed Akram, 24.

Footage from the incident shows the detective taking cover behind a tree before aiming his firearm and returning fire at the attackers. Dressed in a shirt and tie, Det. Sen Const Barraza exposed himself to danger as crowds fled the horrific scene below the bridge.

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Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has unleashed on the Albanese Government at the site of the Bondi terror attack over inaction on antisemitism in emotional scenes.

“Rabbis, Holocaust survivors, and the beautiful 10-year-old Matilda,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“This massacre at Bondi is the greatest stain on this nation.

“(It) has brought the greatest shame to our nation.

“I’m here to mourn, but I am also here to warn.

“Unless our governments, Federal and State, take urgent, unprecedented and strong action, as night follows day, we will be back grieving the loss of innocent life in another terrorist attack in our country.”

Wails have been heard as hundreds of mourners solemnly filled into a Bondi synagogue for the funeral of a local rabbi gunned down in a shooting massacre.

Assistant Rabbi Eli Schlanger was one of 15 people killed when father-and-son terrorists opened fire on a religious celebration on iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday.

Hundreds of his community have gathered at his local synagogue - Chabad of Bondi - to commemorate his life on Wednesday morning, amid a heavy police and security presence, including the complete closure of the road where the funeral is occurring.

Many attendees shed tears as they entered to pay their respects.

“We are here, raw and devastated, crying in unberarable pain, along with the entire Jewish people and all good people across Australia and the world over the wake of the horrific terrorist attack that was perpertrated in our city,” Rabbi Ritchi Moss said as he opened proceedings.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was not in attendance. Earlier on Wednesday, he said he would only attend funerals of victims if invited.

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Nationals leader David Littleproud has called on Anthony Albanese to recall Parliament over the Bondi Beach massacre, claiming proposed gun reforms are a “smokescreen”.

Mr Littleproud has mirrored remarks from the political right in recent days that the response to Bondi Beach should not focus on Australia’s already “strong” gun laws but on immigration.

“We’ve got a report from his (Mr Albanese’s) own special envoy into anti-Semitism that has said in recommendation 9 that we should strengthen our immigration laws to be able to increase the screening on values and particularly around extremist views on anti-Semitism,” he told Newswire.

“Why wouldn’t we go back to Canberra and do that? Why wouldn’t we say to these people, it’s not in vain (and) that we actually can do something.”

Mr Littleproud accused the Prime Minister of having “failed” to lead and having “missed his moment”.

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An ISIS-style propaganda video featuring the alleged Bondi Beach father-and-son terrorists has been seized by police following raids at the rental Campsie sharehouse.

The footage reportedly shows Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, posing with weapons and expressing extremist views, and is believed to have been filmed in Australia, though investigators are still determining whether it was made before or after their trip to the Philippines.

Police sources told The Daily Telegraph that both the video and the pair’s overseas travel are now central to the investigation into Sunday’s deadly attack at Bondi.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said “early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State.”

Senior investigators believe the material will confirm that the assault was planned well in advance, with one source saying, “It’s hard not to look at this video and not think they had been practising for the attack.”

Naveed and Sajid Akram are known to have travelled to the southern Philippines early last month, possibly to the ISIS-linked region of Mindanao, before returning home on November 30, two weeks before the attack.

The police source bluntly put it: “No one believes they went there for a holiday in the sun.”

Australia’s top former security and intelligence chiefs say the country is at a “turning point,” after the Bondi terror attack that has killed 15, warning that gun law reforms alone won’t curb anti-Semitism or the threat of extremist ideologies.

Speaking to The Australian, former intelligence and defence leaders Nick Warner, Duncan Lewis and Dennis Richardson, who all served under both Labor and Coalition governments, have urged federal and state authorities to intensify efforts to tackle surging anti-Semitism directly.

Mr Warner, head of Australia’s Secret Intelligence Service from 2009-2017 said “Australia is divided like never before … our multicultural miracle is starting to tear apart. I spend a lot of my time in ­Caulfield, the Jewish heart of Melbourne. As anti-Semitism has grown over the past two years, my neighbours have come to live in fear.”

“The tragedy of Bondi needs to be a turning point, led by the federal and state governments, for serious action to crack down on anti-Semitism, to stem the fear, hatred and anger in our communities.”

The director-general of ASIO from 2014-2019, Mr Lewis, said “at the core, this is less about gun laws and public ­announcements, and more about the deadly ideologies that propel followers towards acts of ­violence … this must be urgently addressed”.

“There is no place in this ­country for politically and religiously motivated violence of this sort. We must act with increased urgency and resolution to stamp out anti-Semitism.”

Anthony Albanese is asked again about his Government’s progress on the recommendations contained in anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report.

He and other ministers have faced repeated questions since the Bondi shooting about the lack of a formal response to the plan.

The Prime Minister said he met Ms Segal again on Tuesday – they also spoke on Sunday and Monday – and that the Government is “continuing to work through a whole range of the measures” from her report.

“If we need to do something more about hate speech, for example – we have outlawed hate speech that can lead to violence – if there’s a need to strengthen them, we’re up for whatever’s necessary,” he said.

“It is, indeed … hard to legislate against such massive hatred and people who have this perversion of Islam that leads them to support Islamic State and to have a view that somehow there is some reward for them. There is not. They are evil.”

Asked about the feeling among Jewish families and leaders that his Government hasn’t done enough to fight anti-Semitism, Mr Albanese said the battle against the hatred “has been around for a long period of time”.

“We have called (it) out and will continue to call out. We’ll do whatever is necessary to work with the community to stamp out the scourge of anti-Semitism, of which we have seen a rise in Australia and around the world since October 7.”

The Prime Minister said he met with rabbis and Jewish leaders on Tuesday evening at an event at the Governor-General’s official Sydney residence, Admiralty House.

“It was an opportunity for us to pray together, for us to have those personal discussions as well,” Anthony Albnaese said, mentioning that he spoke with family members of the victims of the shooting.

“This is an incredibly traumatic time for members of the Australian Jewish community. It has also shaken our nation.

“Our nation will respond. We will hold people to account for what has occurred.

“We will give whatever powers are necessary to our police forces, to our security and intelligence agencies arising from this act of terror, an act of anti-Semitism that we saw play out on Sunday night.”

Anthony Albanese and Governor-General Sam Mostyn have visited hospital staff at St Vincent’s in Sydney.

Speaking outside the hospital, the Prime Minister praises the doctors, nurses, surgeons and other health staff for saving lives in their work after the shooting on Sunday night.

The hospital had eight operating theatres running at once as gunshot victims arrived on the night.

“In a traumatic experience, they responded with professionalism, with compassion and with the best of Australian values,” Mr Albanese said.