NSW Government Considers Permitting Armed Jewish Private Security at Public Events

In his post-Bondi Beach massacre Sky News interview, New South Wales premier Chris Minns told host Sharri Markson that he’s considering whether to permit Jewish organisation Community Security Group to be armed whilst working events in public places. So, this could mean armed officers in public working for CSG, which has known links to the Israeli Defence Forces.

Markson’s CSG query raised during the last 30 seconds of the 20 minute interview served to flag the idea to the public.

The question as to whether a group of security guards, whose mandate is to prevent harm to one part of the community against any threat posed by the rest of society, should be carrying guns, with the obvious ability to shoot-to-kill, has unsurprisingly sparked controversy.

Founded in 1979 and run by the NSW Council of Jewish Deputies, CSG NSW has been providing security to the Jewish community and monitoring local antisemitic threat levels ever since. CSG officers can already carry pistols while providing security at Jewish schools and synagogues. CSG also operates in other Australian states, and is funded via donations, as well as state and federal grants.

Privately armed security forces operating on Australian streets are hardly the norm. The controversy over CSG is heightened due to its links to the Israeli Defence Force, but to be clear, the Israeli military is not directly run the group but it is known to have funded staff training, which was carried out in Israel, and further, ex-IDF members are among those making up its ranks.

Since his 16 December 2025 interview with Markson, Minns has fielded questions on an armed CSG, as well as a proposal to deploy Australian Army troops in public. And whilst he has addressed the need for protocols and training if CSG is to be armed at public events, he has not addressed its links to the IDF, which is an entity that’s perpetrating a UN recognised ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“Small price to pay”

“I haven’t made a final decision about that yet,” Minns said in response to a question about arming CSG. “But I want to make this clear, I have spoken to so many members of the Jewish community in the last week, who don’t feel safe. They don’t feel safe celebrating their religion. They don’t feel safe getting together as a community.”

“We cannot have a situation, where the solution to this horrible terrorism event is to have the Jewish community say that we can only exist and celebrate our faith behind big walls,” the premier continued.

Minns made these statements during a 29 December presser that covered broader plans to overhaul NSW security protocols. This included admissions that his government was in discussions with Canberra in terms of potential army deployments to city streets.

The top minister also highlighted that CSG officers are already often armed whilst on duty at Jewish schools and added that he believes it “will be necessary to have a situation where for an event like Hanukkah by the Sea, they are armed as well”. Minns further explained that arming CSG would be a way to ensure proper security for the Jewish community even after the news cycle shifts.

“I know there are people against this,” the NSW Labor leader further made clear. “I know there are some people in the media today, who say we’re making the wrong decision here, but I firmly believe that things need to change.”

Skewwhiff allegiances

Most of the public had been unaware that CSG has operating for decades. But CSG has increasingly come to the fore over the last 12 months, especially in relation to a ruling of the Administrative Review Tribunal, which found it reasonable for the head of ASIO to have stripped a serving member of the Australian Army Reserve of his security clearance due to his allegiance to Israel.

In February 2025, the ART found that the 2004-recruit had his two levels of security clearances removed in 2023, after a thorough internal review. ASIO director general Mike Burgess determined to do this based upon, but not solely because of, the male officer having been a voluntary member of the NSW Community Security Group over the period 2014 to 2023.

The reason the adverse finding was come to is ASIO assessed the man as having “demonstrated a higher level of loyalty to Israel than to the Australian government”, which was incompatible with holding a security clearance. But this did not, however, mean he’d been removed from the army reserve as he remained an inactive member.

During interviews, the man admitted that he had not disclosed that he’d travelled to Israel as part of CSG in 2016 and 2019, to undergo “self-defence and scenario-based training” that included “basic security principles, planning skills and firearms handling”. He did not inform the ADF of this, as CSG encouraged caginess. He also explained that he’d disclose sensitive information to Israel if asked.

Key policy positions to be addressed

One reporter put to the premier whether other parts of the community might be able to have their own security. The question didn’t receive a direct response. The obvious reason why discussions are focused on the Jewish community at present is due to the Bondi mass shooting, which specifically targeted them. So, consideration of other communities had not likely yet been pondered.

But the premier did warn of rising Islamophobic incidents in NSW on 30 December. This is apparently due to the Bondi mass murderers being Muslim, and despite the fact that Muslim man Ahemd al Ahmed had disarmed the older shooter. Minns deemed these Islamophobic incidents “shameful”, and he warned that anyone breaching NSW racial vilification laws will have the book thrown at them.

This doesn’t, however, resolve the question as to whether the Islamic community might be able to employ their own armed guards at public events, and if any links to foreign militaries are reasonable.

Another prospect might be that First Nations communities have armed guards to primary protect against the threat of law enforcement bodies. And further a question would then likely be asked as to whether the white Australians involved in March for Australia might be able to arm themselves against the threat of the immigrants that they’ve been protesting against, in case of any reprisals.

The other key issue that the NSW government obviously needs to flesh out with CSG as well, is at what point can CSG officers shoot to kill? And do CSG officers have to wait until after a shooter has taken their first shot at the crowd, or can they act on intel gathered about any potential terrorist attack and move to pre-emptively foil any approach of another member of the NSW community?