Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has sworn to set up a taskforce dedicated to tackling anti-Semitism if he wins the next election.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday morning, Dutton announced the policy, saying the taskforce would be led by the Australian Federal Police and work with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Australian Border Force and state police.
This announcement comes in response to the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue late last week, which has been declared a terrorist attack by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese described the incident, in his personal view, as an act of terror on Sunday however, police have yet to declare the incident as such and an official terrorism declaration unlocks extra policing powers.
Labor MP Josh Burns, who represents the electorate where the synagogue is located and is himself Jewish, said he is open to the ideas put forward by Dutton.
At the press conference, Dutton also accused Albanese of delaying calling the attack an act of terrorism and that it was an "obvious" act of terror from the start.
