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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

The discovery of a caravan full of explosives on the outskirts of Sydney earlier this year triggered widespread panic and fear.

There were reports of a list of Jewish targets, and right away, the New South Wales Premier and the prime minister called it terrorism.

In the months that followed, the threat seemed to grow with Peter Dutton blaming the prime minister for putting Australians at risk.

But all the while, police were warning the whole thing could be a hoax.

Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper Jason Koutsoukis on how a criminal con job became a political football, and the implications for our national security.

It’s Tuesday, March 18.

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RUBY:

So, Jason, at the beginning of the year, we got news that there had been this caravan full of explosives discovered near Sydney, and this was a big and kind of strange story right from the very get go. So what did you think when you first heard of it?

JASON:

Yeah. Ruby, I mean, this was a pretty dramatic story. When The Daily Telegraph broke it on the 29th of January, they published the story online with the headline Caravan of Explosives Found on Property North of Sydney.

Audio excerpt — News Host:

“Breaking news. The Daily Telegraph is reporting a caravan laden with explosives and a note with addresses of Jewish targets, including a synagogue.”

JASON:

And the article went on to say that not only was this caravan laden with very powerful industrial explosives, but there was a note sitting alongside with the address of a number of possible Jewish targets and a message that said “F the Jews”.

Audio excerpt — News Host:

“New South Wales Police are treating it as a credible terror threat.”

JASON:

Yeah, I was alarmed, I guess, like most other Australians who saw that headline.

RUBY:

Right. So what happened next?

JASON:

So soon after the story went online, the New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, held a press conference alongside some senior New South Wales police officers, including Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson.

Audio excerpt — David Hudson:

“As the premier indicated, on the 19th of January this year, the suburb of Dural, Police were contacted and subsequently recovered a caravan on a residential property.”

JASON:

What was really interesting, and perhaps missed by a lot of people, was the fact that right from that first press conference, David Hudson made it clear that one of the theories that police were pursuing was that this caravan could be part of a very carefully staged hoax. And Hudson said that New South Wales Police were not prepared to declare the discovery of the caravan as a terrorist incidence.

But right at the end of the press conference, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns brought it up himself, and he chose to focus on the fact that the explosives had a potential blast radius of up to 40m. And then he went on to call it terrorism. And just to quote the premier directly, he said, this is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There's only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism.

RUBY:

Right. So what did you think when you heard that, Jason, that the police were saying that this was an ongoing investigation, but the premier at the same time is saying this is terrorism.

JASON:

Well, I spoke to Doctor John Coyne about this review. He's the director of national security programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. And he told me that the public shouldn't be told about a terror threat until intelligence agencies have confirmed its credibility, because if you talk about it too soon and not only do you compromise the investigation potentially, but you also create unnecessary panic in the community.

Nonetheless, right after Chris Minns called it terrorism the next morning, the prime minister was asked the same question on ABC radio by the ABC's Craig Castle whether he also classified the discovery of the caravan as terrorism. And the prime minister replied I certainly do. And he said, “I agree with Chris Minns”.

RUBY:

Right. So tell me more then about what police were actually finding out about what had happened and the leads that they had by the time that they spoke to the media about it?

JASON:

Well, this actually goes back to early December last year. The caravan had been sitting idle for weeks on Derriwong Road in Dural, which is a quiet suburb northwest of Sydney. And then in early December, a local resident decided that this caravan was becoming a bit of a road hazard. So he towed it onto his property for safety reasons, really. And then it just sat there on his property for around seven weeks until January 19th, when that same man was concerned and curious enough to decide to force his way into the caravan and see what was inside. And when he did, he discovered a cache of power gel. That's the brand name, industrial explosives. And alongside that, the note listing a number of potential Jewish targets. And one of those potential targets was a Sydney synagogue.

This resident immediately called the police. And within hours, New South Wales Police and the Australian Federal Police had launched a covert joint counter-terrorism investigation, which also involved ASIO and the New South Wales Crime Commission. And they quickly concluded that the caravan and its contents posed no direct threat to the public. They also noted that there was no detonator present with the explosives, and that the caravan had been very easy to find. So right from the start, investigators were treating the caravan as a possibly fabricated terror plot.

RUBY:

Coming up after the break – who was behind the caravan and how the hoax was hijacked.

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RUBY:

Jason, you've been looking into the caravan of explosives that was discovered a couple of months back and how its existence came to stir up these very real fears of a major terrorist attack, and dominated political debate. One of the central parts of that debate was about how the prime minister, Anthony Albanese handled this. So tell me about what he did and what he said publicly.

JASON:

Yeah. So this immediately became just one of those political footballs that both sides are contesting very, very strongly. Once the prime minister refused to say publicly when he had been briefed about the caravan, the federal opposition went on the attack straightaway.

Audio excerpt — Michael Sukkar:

“Thanks, Mr. Speaker. My question to the prime minister: when was the prime minister first informed of the planned mass-casualty terrorist attack?”

Audio excerpt — Sussan Ley:

“When was the prime minister first informed of the planned mass-casualty terror attack?”

Audio excerpt — Peter Dutton:

“When did the prime minister first become aware of the planned mass-casualty terror attack against Sydney's Jewish community?”

JASON:

A few days later, opposition leader Peter Dutton called for an independent inquiry into the government's handling of the caravan investigation. Peter Dutton said I think the prime minister should appoint an eminent Australian from the law enforcement and intelligence community to have a transparent look at what has failed here, because we can't have what could have been the most catastrophic terrorist event in our country's history. And the prime minister doesn't know about it until the public does.

RUBY:

Okay, so what were you thinking, Jason, as you were watching the opposition latch on to this line of attack and run with it for as long as it did. Did you get the sense that it was working, politically speaking?

JASON:

I do think the opposition's attacks were cutting through. But what I noticed was that the longer this story went on, the more hyperbolic the language became. And when the prime minister faced Parliament for the first time this year, and he was asked about the discovery of this caravan instead of it being a potential mass casualty terrorist incident. In the words of the opposition, it had become a planned mass casualty terror attack against Sydney's Jewish community.

Audio excerpt — Anthony Albanese:

“It's an ongoing investigation. And what you do when you have an ongoing investigation is that you take the advice of the Australian Federal Police and the ASIO director general.”

JASON:

And what fascinated me was that the prime minister told Parliament that Peter Dutton had himself been offered briefings on the matter, but hadn't asked for one.

Audio excerpt — Anthony Albanese:

“Now the leader of the opposition is always made available briefings when they're requested. He has not requested a briefing at this time.”

JASON:

And I spoke to a Labor adviser about this who said that the reason they believed that Peter Dutton had not asked for a briefing was that it was already becoming clear to the people who were investigating the discovery of this caravan that it was not really part of a planned terror attack, and that if Peter Dutton had requested a face to face briefing, he would have been told that.

And so that was suggesting that Peter Dutton deliberately stayed away from a direct briefing from the government because he wanted to keep stoking the line of attack that he'd got up and running, a sense that the caravan had been discovered and didn't want to have to own up to the fact that it was pretty obvious to everyone investigating the caravan that it actually had nothing to do with that, a real planned terrorist incident.

RUBY:

Right. That's pretty extraordinary. So tell me then, Jason, what the police ultimately discovered about what really happened with the explosives in the caravan and who was behind it?

JASON:

So on Saturday, February 15th, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that police had turned their attention to organised crime gangs as the likely source of the explosives. Police also confirmed in this story that the power gel explosive found inside the caravan were around 40 years old, and that underworld crime figures had offered to reveal plans about the caravan weeks before its discovery by police, hoping to use it as leverage for a reduced prison term. Then on March 10th, police confirmed that this was a criminal con job rather than an ideologically driven attack.

And then, just in the last day or two, police have revealed that they think the mastermind behind this whole hoax was a Sydney businessman who has since fled overseas. His name is Sayet Erhan Akca. He's been on bail since 2022 facing serious drug charges, and police now believe that he's a key person of interest in this joint investigation.

RUBY:

So how has the government reacted, Jason, now that it's been revealed that this was actually a hoax all along?

JASON:

Well, what we're seeing now, Ruby, I think, is the kind of counter attack, if you like, it's, you know, with the full results of the joint police investigation now out in the open. The Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, came out leading the attack against the opposition.

Audio excerpt — Tony Burke:

“Quite deliberately, Peter Dutton made a decision to not find out the facts from the Australian Federal Police, to ignore the advice from ASIO in lowering the temperature simply because it suited his self-promotion ambitions.”

JASON:

And he went on to say now that is the very definition of being reckless with national security. But it's precisely what he did.

RUBY:

Okay, so even though this was in fact a hoax designed to get reduced prison sentences for criminals, it still had the effect of causing a lot of fear, particularly among the Jewish community who appeared to be the target. So given that, what is your view, Jason, on how our political leaders handled this and what the cost is when something as sensitive as this becomes politicised to this degree?

JASON:

Well, I mean, I think an unfortunate consequence of when political attacks get heated in instances like this is that the real incident, what actually happened can sometimes be obscured by the political heat. You know, even though this was a hoax, it still had the effect of a real terrorist incident in the sense that it alarmed a lot of people.

And from a national security perspective, you know, if we keep being exposed to false alarms like this, it risks desensitising the public and making them either overly reactive or dismissive in the face of real threats when they occur.

Adversaries can exploit this. And it still has the effect of undermining social cohesion and democratic resilience.

RUBY:

Jason, thank you so much for your time.

JASON:

Thanks, Ruby. Great to chat.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Australia should have US-style organised crime laws to deal with alleged criminal behaviour in the CFMEU, the opposition leader has announced.

Peter Dutton called the notorious union a “modern day mafia operation” and said the new laws would give police the power to target the leaders of groups that engage in criminal behaviour, even if the leaders are not directly involved.

His comments follow Victorian premier Jacinta Allan’s announcement that there will be a new Victorian police taskforce dedicated to investigating allegations against the union – a move Mr Dutton described as “wet lettuce”.

And, the deputy leader of the Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has called on the federal government to protect the integrity of Australia’s higher education sector, following interventions from the Trump administration.

Australian researchers working on projects jointly funded by the United States have revealed that they have been sent a questionnaire asking about a range of issues, including any links to China and asking about their position on gender ideology.

Dr Faruqi says the intervention is “outrageous” and said the federal government must increase research funding in order to guard against political manipulation.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. Thanks for listening.

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