1h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:33am
Press conference wraps up
The premier’s press conference has ended so that’s where we’ll tie up our live coverage today.
Thanks for being with us.
1h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:32am
Minns says police on alert for gatherings during Christmas holidays
Asked whether he’s concerned about large gatherings during the holiday period, Minns says the police will work closely with the community over Christmas.
“The police always do an in-depth risk assessment for every event that they know is on in the city and we know they do thousands in the city,” he said.
“They will assess the risk and they will apply the correct amount of police for that risk.”
1h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:27am
Minns says ‘we have to get on with’ NSW royal commission
The premier has been asked about what would happen if the federal government called a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, and if that would see NSW abandon its own royal commission.
He said the federal government had made their position “clear”.
“It’s not going to happen so we have to get on with the one in New South Wales,” Minns said.
1h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:23am
A mass protest in Sydney would be ‘ruinous’ for community, Minns says
Minns says he wants a “summer of calm”, saying a mass protest right now would be “ruinous for our community”.
“I want to make it clear that I want a summer of calm. And I expect a summer of calm,” he said.
“I think that a big mass protest through the heart of Sydney at the moment would be ruinous for our community and I don’t resolve from that.
“If someone is going to have a racist rally, they can expect it to be shut down immediately.
“Police are on guard for those changes and they won’t tolerate anyone attempting to use overt racism in our community.”
1h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:18am
Minns acknowledges ‘failures across the board’
Minns has been asked about reports Sajid Akram bought his final shotgun after applying for and receiving permission on the same day, just months before the Bondi terror attack.
“I accept that there were failures across the board,” he said.
“I would give anything to ensure that we don’t have Sunday [happen] again, or to stop it from happening in the first place.
“We have to go into this royal commission, these inquiries, with humility.
“The only thing that we can do about yesterday is learn from it, but I’m determined that we do that.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:03am
NSW government ‘alive’ to potential legal challenge on new laws
A question has been put to the premier about a legal challenge on the government’s planned protest laws.
“All I will say is that we’ve run our legislation thoroughly through the Crown Solicitor,” he said.
“We are alive to the threat from the High Court and a reversal of these changes. And in some cases, that’s tempered us in terms of rushing into bills.
“In other cases, we don’t think that we can wait.
But we’re all confident that they’re sound constitutionally.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 2:00am
Minns says ‘we need change in New South Wales’
Minns has been asked to respond to criticism of the government’s sweeping legislative changes.
“If the call is for the status quo, for nothing to change, to return to the circumstances before Sunday, I reject that,” he said.
“We need change in New South Wales … these are big changes.
“I don’t think that I can beat around the bush about what the implications are for the state.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:57am
New laws will give police greater powers, minister says
NSW’s Police Minister Yasmin Catley is also at the press conference, saying the changes that passed the legislative assembly last night will “strengthen oversight, improve enforcement and reduce risk”.
“It will give police the powers that they need to ensure that we have the right people getting guns in New South Wales,” she said.
“The terrible situation that we saw, the tragedy, the horrific event in Bondi has changed us forever.
“And as the premier just said, the temperature has risen. And we need to respond accordingly.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:52am
Protest laws important as ‘words lead to actions’, Minns says
The premier says new protest laws will follow despite “resistance to the government’s legislative agenda in recent days”.
“I understand the concerns behind it. But I want to make the point that in virtually all aspects of government policy, there’s an acknowledgement that words lead to actions,” he said.
“Of course this needs to be investigated. It’s a central [part] of what happened last Sunday, and through a royal commission and the criminal proceedings, that’s exactly what will happen.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:48am
Government hopes gun laws will pass today or early hours of tomorrow
Minns says gun reform laws passed NSW’s lower house last night and are “now being debated in the Legislative Council”.
“We’re hopeful that the legislation can pass at some point today or in the early hours of tomorrow morning,” he said.
“As I said yesterday, the passage of this legislation is the single best thing in the short run to keep the people of New South Wales safe.
“And I want to acknowledge the leader of the opposition’s bipartisan approach to some of the difficult issues we’ve had to confront together in a short space of time.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:45am
Premier reaffirms NSW is ‘standing with’ Bondi victims
NSW Premier Chris Minns is speaking now, first acknowledging the funeral of Marika Pogani — one of 15 victims in the Bondi terror attack.
“While she was of the Catholic faith, her mother was Jewish, and the Jewish community were there in massive numbers to support that family on a tragic, tragic day,” he said.
“I just wanted to tell them that on behalf of the people of New South Wales, we’re with them, we’re standing with them on what is a shocking, shocking day for them.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:33am
Stay with us for Chris Minns press conference
The PM and Minster Burke’s press conference has ended, but NSW Premier Chris Minns is expected to address reporters in Sydney soon.
We’ll continue to bring you the latest here.
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:30am
Government wants to stop hateful organisations from operating
Burke has taken a question about government crackdowns on hateful organisations at both federal and state levels.
While details on how those groups will be restricted is so far limited, he said “the intention of the legislation is to be able to stop them from operating”.
“A number of the consequences that currently apply to organisations that are listed as terror organisations would effectively be a very close to exact match here,” he said.
“We want those organisations to not operate. They hate Australia. We don’t see why they should be operating in Australia.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:20am
PM says federal government will cooperate on NSW’s royal commission
The prime minister has been asked about calls for a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, which the opposition has been demanding.
“I just note that there was no royal commission called by the Howard government after Port Arthur. There was no royal commission called by the Abbott government after the Lindt siege,” he said.
“We provided on both those occasions as the opposition, and I was a part of that opposition … support for national unity at that time.
“New South Wales has said that they’re going to have a royal commission, we’ve said we’ll cooperate with that … and the Richardson review will be completed by April.”
2h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:16am
No jurisdiction is standing in the way of gun law reform, Burke says
Burke has been asked whether he’s satisfied state governments are moving fast enough on gun law reforms.
“I expect we’ll be in a situation where the Commonwealth legislation to enable everything happens before the state legislation happens,” he responded.
“[But] in some jurisdictions, obviously New South Wales, legislation has been happening immediately.
“From the states, we’re at early times in terms of their bureaucratic work, but no jurisdictions are preventing the work from being progressed.
“I think every government in Australia is in the same position at the moment.”
3h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:13am
PM says he’ll continue to ‘argue for unity’
Albanese says he’ll continue to “argue for unity”, in response to a question about criticisms from the opposition that he and other senior ministers haven’t shown enough grief in the wake of the terror attack.
He said this isn’t a time for “people to look for political product differentiation for the sake of it”.
“I’ll continue to conduct myself in a way that’s consistent with that call for national unity, with being focused on making a difference, with providing support for the agencies who are conducting their investigations,” he said.
“I would hope that other people do that too.”
3h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:09am
PM says security agencies get ‘whatever is requested’
Albanese has been asked about funding increases for national security agencies, and whether it will include funds for fast-tracking IT systems.
Here’s what he had to say:
“What we’ve been doing in each and every budget that we have presided over is to provide increased funding for our security agencies, and we provide them with whatever it is that is requested.”
3h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 1:03am
PM takes question about transparency of review into intelligence agencies
The PM has taken a question about how much the Australian public will get to see of the review into Australia’s federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Dennis Richardson, the former head of ASIO and of the departments of defence and foreign affairs, has been tasked with that review.
“He will make whatever is appropriate, can be made public, will be made public,” Albanese said.
3h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 12:57am
Government working with Jewish leaders on hate speech laws
Burke says the government is also working with “the leadership of the Jewish community” on hate speech laws.
“[That] will feed directly into the drafting which will take place,” he said.
“But people should be in no doubt about where the target is as this drafting is done.
“We want to make sure that those hate preachers who have managed to keep themselves just on the legal side of Australian law, that the threshold is lowered.
“Those statements that we have seen, that every reasonable Australian has viewed as horrific and as having no place in Australia, will become criminal.”
3h agoTue 23 Dec 2025 at 12:54am
Databases on hate crimes, firearms being ‘accelerated’
The Hate Crimes Database and the National Firearms Register are both “being accelerated to be able to provide the best possible information” to both the public and the authorities that issue gun licences, Burke says.