Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on the explosive-laden caravan being labelled a 'hoax'

Details are being revealed about the Sydney caravan hoax - described by police as a 'fake terrorism plot'.

NSW police were given a tip-off in January about a caravan at a property in Dural, filled with explosives and a note referencing Jewish targets.

Police have now revealed it was a con job - manufactured by organised crime.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the police say they knew early on that it was a hoax.

"Explosives from the mining industry -  not only were they old and not designed to go off anymore, they didn't have a detonator. And they had written in crayon, from the sound of it, a list of Jewish targets in Sydney." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Olds is with us our Australia correspondent, Murray Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hi Brian, how are you going.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's the public making of this tiff with the between
Turnbull and Trump.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Well, when he was Prime minister, and but long before
he was Prime minister, the worldview of Malcolm Turble was
that he thought himself to be the most clever man
in the room. You know, he's a self made multi
multi millionaire one time the Prime Minister, very very bright,
and you know he's entitled, I guess, to a fairly

(00:32):
elevated opinion of himself because don't forget he was the
prime minister who stood up Trump back in twenty sixteen
over a deal that Australia had signed with then President
Barack Obama. Now, for the life of me, the timing
of this is intriguing. We've got Trump about to whack
tariffs on allies. It doesn't matter anybody who he doesn't like,

(00:54):
bang on go tariff's notwithstanding in fact Australia has got
a trade surplus with the United States and we're in
the whole for nearly four hundred billion dollars to buy submarines.
We may never see Donald Trump doesn't even know what
Orcas is. So it's just intriguing. What's Malcolm Turbull doing?
Is he getting it? Is it a gets square with Trump?
Is he trying to puff his own ego up? Is

(01:17):
he trying in some way to intervene in the upcoming
election because Anthony Alberaneesian Company quietly behind the scenes, have
been lobbying like crazy to try and get Australia a
carve out from these tariffs for our steels certainly and
also hopefully the aluminium industry because they're worth billions of
dollars and exports to Australia. So what's Turbul doing? Just

(01:40):
is he got poking the bear sitting in the Oval office.
It really is intriguing. I don't know what on earth
he is playing at. I can tell you one thing.
The government will be going, oh thanks Malcolm for nothing.
And Peter Dutton has the Opposition leader now because he
wants to be Liberal Prime Minister, just as Malcolm Turbule
was Herbul's a bigger pardon. Dutton is saying, well, the

(02:03):
Prime Minister has responsibility as Malcolm Turbull did when he
was PM to negotiate with a vent Trump administration for
an exemption on tariffs. Well, talk about throwing poor old
elbow unto the bus. So look, there's lots of moving parts.
I'm not sure where there's going to land, but gee
is very interesting and great to heart. Turnbull just slashing
and burning like he's always done.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I guess it is. But as you say, the timing
is not great for you guys. Use you're almost playing
with people's livelihoods.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
You know, it's very very much, so very much so.
These are important export industries, vitally important for Australia with
our biggest trading partner. I mean, come on, it couldn't
get much The States couldn't get much higher. And here's
Malcolm Turbull saying the Trump across the Pacific Ocean. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Hey, where are we at with cyclone Alfred?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, ex tropical Cyclone Alfred has withered and died just
about Blue Skies in northern New South Wales and south
southeast Queensland today. But look, there's still a heck of
a long way to go. As you might expect, Ryan,
the scale of destruction is enormous. You've had flooding, not
as bad as twenty twenty two but you've had a

(03:15):
lot of destruction, a lot of power lines down. They're
getting homes back as quick as they can. Apparently about
seven thousand left in northern New South Wales, and people
are being allowed home because the State Emergency Services has
lifted all the evacuation orders. But some people reportedly are
going back and they're getting onto doctor Google and trying
to work out how to restore the power themselves. Not

(03:36):
a good idea, according to the experts in the field.
They say't cut it out. You've also got cash payments
flowing from tomorrow to eligible people. You've got also damage
assessment teams with the insurance industry on notice over here
from the state and federal governments. Lift your game. Because

(03:56):
so many people in twenty twenty two were dudded by
their insurance companies. The governments are saying, you've got to
do better. If people take out insurance, they do so
for a reason, and that's to be covered in the
event of an emergency like this.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, fair enough too. Now it looks like this caravan
Tira plot, this is fascinating, was actually an elaborate hoax.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
This is crazy, isn't it. I mean this I was
thinking before I came on air with you. How best
to describe this? I mean it could be it could
be a movie script or like a TV series. You've
got fourteen people in custody now charged with a total
of sixty five offenses relating to anti Semitic attacks in
Sydney the Eastern suburbs, mainly between October and February. Right,

(04:41):
So fourteen people, sixty five chargers. Two of the accused,
two men aged thirty one and thirty four, are the
alleged ring leaders of this. And I'm not sure if
in New Zealand you've got a thing called air tasker.
You can put stuff on social media. I want my
lawn mode or my hedge trimmed, and you know, you
negotiate a price and someone will answer the air task

(05:03):
a request and come around and do the job. Apparently
that's what these alleged crims did, these two ring leaders,
they put it out on social media. Anyone want to
do some jobs for money, criminal activity doesn't matter. And
you've got these other muppets turning up and willing to
go and fire bomb synagogues on the orders of these halfwards.
So here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
You've got.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
One of the alleged ring leaders is a member of
a biking gang of he's not still he used to
be one of the heavies in the Nomad's Biki gang.
He is accused of a bunch of different things, but
masterminding these anti Semitic taxes the key allegation against him.
He's denied it. He hasn't applied for bail. You've also

(05:47):
got four of the accused. Interestingly, they were taken from
jails in Sydney to local police stations and charged yesterday afternoon.
It just gets I mean, honestly, you scratch your heads.
And then what I've seen this on Telly Ryan. I
haven't seen it in real life until now.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Is this why? Because I remember when this first came out,
there was some criticism of Albanzi and the government for
not releasing the details earlier. If there was a terror threat,
does that mean the cops knew all along? That wasn't
it wasn't real.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
The police knew from very early on that caravan was
a duck. I mean, here's the thing. Apparently, the allegation
is a couple of mouffets went on social media and
bought a three dollar caravan. You know, I just want
to care. They then went and got the allegation is
explosives from the mining industry so old they could vote.

(06:38):
Not only were they old and not designed to go
off anymore, they didn't have a detonator and they had
written a crayon, from the sound of it, a list
of Jewish targets in Sydney or synagogue at you know,
two Smith Street. Go and form that. I mean, this
is the sort of level of intellectual rigor applied to
this alleged plot. These people are profoundly stupid.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Mary, Thank you for that. Mary Al's Australia correspondent, not
one to Mince's words. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd b from four pm weekdays,
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