Australian PM Orders Police, Intelligence Review After Bondi Attack

A father and his son are accused of firing bullets at a family-packed Hanukkah celebration on December 14, allegedly inspired by the “Islamic State ideology.”

Albanese said his government would examine whether police and spy services had the powers, structures and sharing arrangements “to keep Australians safe”.

“Last Sunday’s ISIS-inspired atrocities reinforce the rapidly changing security environment in our nation,” he said, using the acronym for the Islamic State group.

“Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond.”

Gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police during the Bondi attack. He is an Indian citizen and entered Australia with a visa in 1998.

His Australian-born son Naveed, 24, who survived and remains hospitalized under police guard, faces multiple charges including terrorism and 15 murders.

The son was investigated by the Australian Security Intelligence Agency in 2019 for possible radicalization, but was not found to pose a threat at the time, according to Australian officials.

His father was also questioned by the intelligence service as part of this investigation, but managed to obtain a weapons license which allowed him to own six rifles.

A few weeks before the Bondi Beach attack, the pair returned to Sydney after a four-week trip to the southern Philippines, where they are now under investigation by detectives there and in Australia.

Following the mass attack, Albanese said there were “real problems” with the country’s intelligence agency.

“We need to examine exactly how the systems work. We need to look at what happened when looking at this person in 2019, the assessment that was made,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

Asked in a separate interview about the alleged gunmen’s trip to the Philippines, Albanese said their radicalization was being investigated.

“But they were also not seen as persons of interest, and that’s why it’s such a shocking incident,” he said.