NSW Premier Considers Arming Private Jewish Security in Public, Despite Police Disapproval

New South Wales premier Chris Minns has given his strongest statements yet in support of the proposal to empower members of the Community Security Group, a Jewish organisation that maintains security at Jewish sites, to provide armed security at Jewish events held in public, which is an idea spurred by the Bondi massacre, and it’s despite NSW police having rejected the idea.

In response to a question put to him by Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Robert Borsak, the NSW premier told a 19 August 2026 budget estimates hearing that CSG security officers already carry guns when they’re patrolling “Jewish places of worship, community groups, centres, schools and synagogues”, and he’s currently considering whether this should be extended to “high-risk events”.

Minns appeared on ABC Radio on Wednesday, prior to the hearing, and outlined that he is concerned that local Jewish people may be too afraid to attend public events, like the Hannukah event which was targeted by the ISIS-motivated killers at Bondi on 14 December last year, and he then asserted that given CSG guards are already armed, he thinks that armed guards in public should be trialled.

The premier has made these highly controversial statements after NSW police deputy commissioner Dave Hudson has twice appeared at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to state on behalf of the NSW Police Force, that it should be the only armed body policing in this state and that privileging one group to be armed in public, would create “friction” with other groups.

And in response to an ABC question on whether Muslim groups might seek a similar arrangement, Minns said he wasn’t a “making a carte blanche” decision, and this would be on a “case-by-case basis”.

But the controversy surrounding CSG goes further, as it employs many ex-Israeli Defence Force soldiers, and this is at a time when the IDF has been committing a genocide in Gaza for years on end.

Arming security to protect persons

“We’ve been asked repeatedly over the last week or the last six months as to why we would arm the CSG,” the NSW premier said at budget estimates this week. “The point I’m trying to make is they’re already armed.”

“The question that was asked of me – and I think it would be pretty silly of us to dismiss the request – is can we have a situation, ‘Given we’re already armed for Jewish institutions, when we have an event like Chanukah by the Sea and there are limited police resources, are we able to have one of our security guards to have a firearm on their person?’”

The Bondi massacre was perpetrated on 14 December 2025, by an ISIS-inspired father and son duo, who targeted the Chanukah by the Sea event and killed 15 people. Minns told Sky News host Sharri Markson, during an interview two days later, that he was considering arming CSG at public events. And this was despite his having commended the NSW police response to the act of terrorism.

CSG NSW was founded in 1979. It’s run by the NSW Council of Jewish Deputies. CSG officers can carry pistols to provide security at Jewish premises, such as schools and synagogues. The organisation operates across Australia. CSG is funded by donations and government grants. And whilst the IDF doesn’t direct CSG, it is known to provide training to its members in Israel.

Borsak further raised security guards in NSW not being allowed to use firearms for “personal protection or the protection of any other person”. This as per subsection 12(2)(a) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW), and this pertains to private security guards. Minns agreed with this and also confirmed he is considering arming CSG guards in public to protect persons, and that this is a big policy change.

The sole protector of the public

Another development that flies in the face of Minns’ proposal to arm CSG guards is that NSW police’s Operation Shelter, which was established post-October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, to police antisemitism and Islamophobia, transitioned to the 24/7 Armed Response Command rapid response unit in February, which comprises of 250 officers with long-arm rifles, to prevent further Bondis.

Deputy commissioner Hudson established Operation Shelter, as he was acting commissioner at the time. Hudson appeared at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism in May and July, and on both occasions the top cop rejected the suggestion that the CSG should be empowered as a separate armed body that is able to protect the public via the threat of guns.

Speaking at the Royal Commission on 27 May 2026, Hudson insisted that the CSG should not supplant the role of NSW police, even at Jewish events, and that the law enforcement agency would have “considerable reservations” about such a development. The top cop further set out that NSW police has the capacity to allocate resources to such events in the future without assistance.

“I think isolating a particular group for additional powers within our community is problematic. It creates a disconnect between groups. It can cause friction between groups if one particular element of society is afforded privileges that others aren’t,” Hudson told counsel assisting the commission Richard Lancaster SC.

Hudson again appeared before the commission on 27 July 2026, and he discussed an 8 July written statement that he’d submitted. He confirmed that as per section 6 of the Police Act 1990 (NSW), “protection of all members of the community is the responsibility of the police”, and therefore, NSW police doesn’t consider that CSG should be empowered to carry guns or wear body armour in public.

“It’s our opinion,” Hudson elaborated, “that allowing certain areas of society, no matter what those areas are, to have special privileges in relation to their security, would further fracture situations, which are fairly tenuous and relationships that are fairly tenuous between different groups. And would certainly be looked upon as the police or government… showing favouritism”.

“Moving into a dark place”

“We need to make a really important distinction here,” NSW Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence told the ABC on 20 August, “the guards who guard synagogues and schools at the moment are not able to use guns against people, they are only able to use guns in defence of property and not in defence of people.”

Lawrence, a barrister, confirmed that he knows this to be the case as he’d defended a guard who’d raised his gun at a Jewish institution in defence of children, and had fallen foul of the law because of it.

“If we want to move into a situation where private ethnic militias can use up to deadly force in defence of people in the streets of Sydney, we are moving into a dark place,” the Labor MLC added. “I uphold and agree fully with the comments of the Police Association and also deputy commissioner Hudson… this is the job of our police. A special unit has been established with long arms”.

The idea for CSG to be armed is the want of the local Israel Lobby, of whom the premier is closely linked. Key figure Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin told The Australian that the just launched government gun buyback is “a sideshow at best” in terms of reducing gun harms. And he added the response should involve “surveillance, law enforcement and border security”.

NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson pointed to a February 2025 determination from the Administrative Review Tribunal that found that ASIO was correct to strip an Australian Army Reservist of his security clearances in mid-2023, which was partly due to his having been a member of the CSG from 2014 to 2023 and having failed to declare CSG training in Israel because it could affect his clearance.

“The police oppose this move, the Police Association opposes this move, and commissioner Virginia Bell of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism, has expressed concerns with this move, but the premier’s own ideology seems to be overriding these serious public safety considerations,” Higginson asserted in a 21 August statement.

“CSG training courses are undertaken by agencies funded by the Israeli government, there are serious intelligence considerations that the premier has ignored,” the Greens justice spokesperson further made certain. “The premier’s decision undermines police, public safety and ‘social cohesion’.”

Main image: Image of security guard and NSW police badge from Shutterstock. Image of Chris Minns by the State of NSW is licensed by CC BY 4.0.  Image IDs 2530326225 and 2527853695