Bondi shooting now: Live updates as Sajid Akram, Naveed Akram identified as alleged father-son terrorists

In a statement released overnight Ms Segal said that Australia’s response should now be on par with that of the Howard government to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

“This pure evil is anti-semitism. Death has reached Bondi Beach. It’s not random,” she told ABC radio, saying she hoped “new energy” would now be delivered to acting on her plan.

“I’m sure the Government’s initial reaction will be to look at security. I have laid out a blueprint in my plan. This is a long term strategy that I have laid out. We’ve been making progress.”

Ms Segal had released the plan alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke at a press conference in Sydney on July 10. She’s expected to produce a report annually.

The devastating Bondi Beach massacre comes just months after Australia’s first Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism released a report into the issue.

The 20-page plan released by Jillian Segal in July made 49 actions across 13 areas.

Speaking in Canberra just hours after the attack, the PM stood by his government’s record on tackling antisemitism and said work was continuing on the unmet recommendations.

The recommendations included:

• Holocaust and antisemitism age-appropriate education would be embedded in schools across country – including in the Catholic and independent school systems – to teach “about the history, harms and modern forms of anti-Semitism”.
• Border Force would be trained to spot and deport people engaging in anti-Semitism.
• Under the plan Ms Segal proposed a report-card system for the university sector, and staff, students and visitors who promoted hate speech would be held accountable, by withholding or terminating funding.
• The report also recommended the Government stop charities that promote anti-Semitic speakers or conduct from receiving tax-deductible donations, and for more funding for security at Jewish institutions.
• The report recommended an increase in transparency around social media algorithm to ensure they don’t amplify hate, and reduce the number of bots sowing social discord.
• Media organisations would be monitored to ensure they did not perpetuate incorrect or distorted narratives or representations of Jews, and a whole of community approach towards stamping out anti-Semitism would be adopted.
• Hate crime legislation would be strengthened. Adding new protections against the speaking and demonstrating of hatred was also recommended, as were measures to increase social cohesion.

An incident has reportedly unfolded at a synagogue in Brisbane on Monday morning.

Queensland Police called the incident a “disturbance”, which is understood to have occurred while mourners were gathering to pay respects to Jewish Australians killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

It is understood that police arrived at the Brisbane Synagogue on Margaret St about 7.17am, within 10 minutes of a call being made, but an offender was not located.

“The QPS continues to engage with community leaders and provide an increased presence and additional patrols in and around places of worship and significance to the Jewish community,” police said in a statement.

Police have confirmed the Bondi Beach terror attack was allegedly carried out by a father and son, and say they are not searching for any other suspects.

The pair have been identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, from Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s south-west, who had been staying in Campsie in the lead-up to the shooting.

Shocking details have emerged about Sajid legally possessing six firearms, Naveed’s past and what Naveed told his mother before the shooting have now been exposed.

​Read everything we know about Sajid and Naveed Akrim. ​

How did we get here is one of the many questions that will dominate these next days.

Anthony Albanese has vowed to ‘eradicate‘ anti-Semitism but how has this not been attempted until now, and how was it allowed to get to this point in the first place?

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Sussan Ley has said the brave Australians who helped with the Bondi Beach massacre are “heroes” who showed “acts of mateship”.

“I want to recognise those who stepped into danger to save lives, the everyday heroes,” she said.

“We don’t know who they all are, but we have heard the stories (of those) who did extraordinary things on the most extraordinary of days.

“Brave civilians, they are indeed heroes. It is those acts of mateship and love that will always define us as Australians.”

Ms Ley also thanked the “swift and courageous” response of the NSW Police and NSW Ambulance paramedics.

“It’s their immediate action that steered people away from danger, that helped save lives and that kept people feeling as safe as they possibly could in this horrific attack,” she told a press conference in Sydney.

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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called for greater funding for security around synagogues and Jewish events.

Speaking in Sydney on Monday after the attack, which claimed the lives of at least 15 innocent people at Bondi Beach, she said there needed to be greater support for Jews in Australia.

“We stand ready to support any meaningful action that the Albanese Government can take. To properly fund the security that Jewish Australians have been asking for at their schools, their places of worship and in their community,” she said.

“But it’s about much more than security. If laws need to be passed, we should recall the parliament and undertake to do exactly that. I stand with all Australians in this moment of shared grief.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says Australians are right to be angry and revolted because anti-Semitism “has been left to fester” in the country.

“We have a Government that sees anti-Semitism as a problem to be managed, not an evil that needs to be eradicated,” she says at a press conference in Sydney.

“Everything must change from today in how governments respond.”

Her shadow Home Affairs minister, Jonno Duniam says over the past two years, there have been countless warnings and recommendations to leaders about things that needed to be addressed.

Ms Ley called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to commit to implementing all the recommendations in anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report, which was handed to the Government in July.

“I stand with all Australians in this moment of shared grief, and I give this undertaking to the Australian people: we will do whatever it takes to force the strongest possible action from governments to keep Australians safe, to keep Jewish Australians safe, and to secure justice,” Ms Ley said.

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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called on the Albanese Government to immediately act on the recommendations delivered in anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report earlier this year.

The 20-page plan was released in July to fight anti-Semitism and included 49 actions across 13 areas.

Ms Ley was scathing in her remarks at a press conference on Monday, less than 24 hours after the shocking attack.

“Jewish Australians (have) told me that they’re returning to Israel because they feel safer there than they do here,” Ms Ley said.

“Recently, I spoke with the Prime Minister’s special envoy for anti-Semitism, Jillian Segal and I touched base again with her this morning.

“The Prime Minister has told Jewish Australians that he will do whatever it takes to deal with anti-Semitism.

“He must start today by committing to implementing all of the recommendations in his anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report.

“We stand ready to support any meaningful action that the Albanese Government can take.”

Hollywood stars have been among those to express their condolences, including Sydney-born actress Rebel Wilson and Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

“Just waking up to the news about what’s happened on Bondi Beach. An absolute tragedy that is the most un-Australian thing to have happened,” Wilson said.

Gadot, who is well-known for portraying Wonder Woman, wrote that her “heart is shattered” and called it a deliberate strike against “a sacred moment of community and hope”.

Ashton Kutcher, an actor known for his roles on That 70s Show and The Butterfly Effect, also expressed solidarity with Australians.

“Antisemitic rhetoric is not abstract—it carries a cost, and my brothers and sisters continue to pay it. May this devastation somehow spark a hidden miracle, one our eyes do not yet have the merit to see,” Kutcher posted to X.