Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns have arrived and inspected the latest in a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney after a childcare centre in Maroubra was vandalised in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The wall of a childcare centre had been set alight and spray-painted with an offensive slogan in the latest attack against the eastern suburbs community.
“”I’m here to see first hand what is clearly a despicable crime,” Prime Minister Albanese told waiting reporters at the scene early on Tuesday morning.
“I am here to show solidarity with the local community.”
The premises, in Storey Street at Maroubra in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was set on fire about 1am on Tuesday, police said.
Fire and Rescue NSW attended and found the ground floor well alight. The blaze was extinguished, however the building sustained extensive damage.
The building was unoccupied at the time and there were no reports of injuries.
Officers attached to Eastern Beaches police area command have established a crime scene and an investigation is underway into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
It’s the fourth major anti-Semitic incident in Sydney’s east in three months.
The childcare centre is directly around the corner from the Maroubra Synagogue on Anzac Parade.
The incident comes with the nation’s Jewish community reeling over an attack on Friday on the former Dover Heights home of Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin in which the house was defaced with slurs and cars were set alight outside.
In its wake, legal experts have cast doubt on a federal coalition plan to set minimum jail terms for terrorism offences and displaying hate symbols.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced his plan for tougher laws to combat anti-Semitism at Bondi Central Synagogue on Monday, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asked Australian activists for calm during a six-week ceasefire in Gaza.
Terrorism offences would attract a minimum of six years in jail under the coalition’s proposed laws, while those displaying terrorist organisation signs, Nazi symbols or performing a Nazi salute would face at least a year behind bars.
But there was no evidence mandatory sentences deterred offenders, Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns said.
“Furthermore, mandatory jail terms lead to injustice,” Mr Barns said.
“They force courts to impose sentences where the circumstances do not warrant it because of the nature of offending, or the background of the offender.”
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