Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has called on NSW authorities to do "whatever they can" to punish a group of teenagers accused of racially abusing a busload of Jewish schoolchildren.
Five of the youths, believed to be aged between 15 and 17, were arrested on Thursday morning after hurling "anti-Semitic threats and also threats of violence" at primary schoolchildren, some as young as five, on a bus in Sydney's east on Wednesday afternoon.
The teenagers behind the alleged attack were too drunk to be interviewed by police when they were arrested and have been released into the custody of their parents.
Charges have not yet been laid.
But Mr Dreyfus has urged police to examine "criminal offences that may have been committed" and said the teens responsible for the "truly offensive" attack should face penalties.
"I'd urge the NSW authorities to do whatever they can to impose whatever penalty they can on those responsible for a disgraceful attack," Mr Dreyfus said on Thursday before he was to address a summit in Sydney on free speech, hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
He also voiced concern about the possibility of similar attacks.
"Of course we have to be concerned every time that this kind of attack occurs. I hope we've seen the last of it.
"Every child in Australia has the right to go to school, has the right to be free in the street, on a bus, anywhere in our community without being exposed to this kind of disgraceful attack.
"This is no part of Australia's way of life."
The head of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, has also warned of a rise in anti-Semitism in Australia.
"It is particularly sickening when those being targeted are young children," he told AAP.
"There is no place for racism of any form in our society."
The attack in Sydney comes after six teenagers vilified an Israeli rabbi on a lecture tour in Perth on Monday, and vandals reportedly painting the words "Zionist scum" on a Perth school in July.
Police and the Department of Education have refused to confirm which school the boys were from.
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