Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has condemned last night’s Sydney church stabbing, saying nobody should be harmed in their place of worship.
Dutton, speaking at a press conference in Perth, said he had written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offering the opposition’s support to the government in its response to the incident.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has condemned the violence in Sydney. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“It doesn’t matter if you disagreed vehemently with a priest, a rabbi, with any person, violence is never the answer,” he said.
“In the aftermath of the tragedy that we saw in Bondi and in Western Sydney last night, I also asked for a briefing from the director-general of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police commissioner in relation to these matters and the current [terrorism] threat level”.
Dutton said he had met with members of Melbourne’s Jewish community over the weekend and noted the rise in anti-Semitism amid the war in Gaza.
He said international conflicts should not seep into local community feuding.
“We need to make sure in our country we don’t bring problems from around the world,” he said.
“We have a peaceful country, we celebrate every week and particularly in places of worship, they are sacrosanct, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a church or synagogue, whether it is a temple, whether it is a mosque.”