Intro

Last Friday, a large blaze engulfed a synagogue in Melbourne — which authorities are treating as an act of terrorism. It prompted the federal government to set up a special taskforce to investigate antisemitism in Australia. But in the aftermath, Peter Dutton was accused of ‘disgusting’ political point-scoring by escalating the Coalition’s already growing criticism of the government’s response and by attacking Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.Bridie Jabour talks to the head of newsroom, Mike Ticher, and the national news editor, Jo Tovey, about Peter Dutton’s strongman politics and why he is stoking culture wars