Australia honours Bondi Beach victims, launches probe of security services 

Australia is observing a National Day of Reflection in tribute to the victims of the gun attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last week, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing a review into the country’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Indigenous leaders began the commemorations on Sunday morning with a traditional smoking ceremony at the waterfront Bondi Pavilion, where an impromptu memorial has grown for the 15 people who were killed while celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Flags are being flown at half-mast at government buildings, and a minute of silence will be held at 6:47pm (07:47 GMT), the ​time the attack began.

Authorities also invited Australian people to light a candle on Sunday evening, the start of the eighth and final day of the Jewish festival of lights, “as a quiet act of remembrance with family, friends or loved ones” for the victims of the attack, allegedly carried out by a father-son duo.

An evening memorial event at Bondi Beach will take place under a heavy police presence, including officers carrying long-arm firearms, police said in a statement.

The attack on December 14 was Australia’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996, when an attacker killed 35 people in the state of Tasmania.

The authorities are investigating the shooting as an act of “terrorism” targeting Jews.

Authorities believe the attackers were inspired by ISIL (ISIS) and said the group’s flags were found in the car the attackers took to Bondi.

While suspect Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene, his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who was also shot and emerged from a coma on Tuesday, has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism. He remains in custody in hospital.

Some 13 of those wounded at Bondi also remained in Sydney hospitals on Sunday.

Albanese said there were “real issues” with the country’s intelligence service in the aftermath of the mass shooting.

“We need to examine exactly the way that systems work. We need to look back at what happened in 2019 when this person was looked at, the assessment that was made,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

The prime minister added in a statement that the review of the country’s security agencies will be led by a former chief of Australia’s spy agency and would inquire whether federal police and intelligence agencies have the “right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe”.

He said the review would conclude by the end of April.

Albanese has previously announced a nationwide gun buyback, while gun safety experts say the nation’s gun laws, among the world’s toughest, are riddled with loopholes.

The prime minister went on to condemn anti-immigration rallies held in Sydney and ⁠Melbourne on Sunday.

“There are organised rallies seeking to sow division in the aftermath of last Sunday’s antisemitic terrorist attack, and they have no place in Australia,” he said in a statement. “They should not go ahead and people should not attend them.”

Only about 50 people were at the Sydney rally by mid-afternoon, according to the Reuters news agency.