Anthony Albanese dodges questions on when he was briefed on explosive-laden caravan

Anthony Albanese has shut down reporters asking when he was briefed on an explosive-laden caravan involved in an alleged anti-Semitic terror plot in Sydney.

NSW authorities revealed the discovery on Wednesday, 10 days after the fact.

The delay drew ire, with questions around who knew what and when adding to pressure on the Albanese government, which is already weathering criticisms it has been slow to respond to rising anti-Semitism in Australia.

Asked point blank when he was briefed, the Prime Minister refused to “speak about operational matters”.

“I have no intention of undermining an ongoing investigation by going into the details,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

“What I will do is continue to prioritise two things -- the first and most important is keeping Australians safe.

“The second is making sure that I provide support to the police and intelligence agencies for them to do their job.”

NSW Police said they found the caravan on January 19.

Inside were mining explosives with an estimated blast radius of 40m and details of suspected targets.

The Great Synagogue in Sydney’s CBD and the Sydney Jewish Museum were reportedly among them.

NSW Police have made several “peripheral” arrests, but it remains unclear who was behind the alleged plot.

Earlier, Peter Dutton warned that Australia would have suffered its “most catastrophic terrorist attack” if police had not found the caravan.

“It can start with graffiti and it can start with the doxxing, which is bad enough, but then it’s escalating to a firebombing of a synagogue,” the Opposition Leader told Nine’s Today.

“It’s predictable in the sense that people don’t know red lines and they’ve continued to escalate.

“People have warned of Australians losing their lives.

“Had this taken place, as I understand from the police advice, it would have been a 40m blast zone, which would have been the most catastrophic terrorist attack in our country’s history.

“So, we have to take it incredibly seriously. You can understand why the Jewish community is really living on edge.”

In a rare statement, domestic intelligence chief Mike Burgess said overnight he did not expect to raise the terror threat level from “probable”.

Though he did say Australia’s security environment had changed “almost exactly as we expected”.

“One of the key reasons we raised the threat level in August 2024 was because we anticipated spikes in politically motivated violence,” Mr Burgess said.

“Unfortunately, the security environment has evolved almost exactly as we expected.”