Defence Minister Richard Marles said federal agencies, alongside state law enforcement, had made a significant effort that has "yielded the right result".
"Thankfully, this incident was foiled but what lies behind it is sickening," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
"What underlies this is a malevolence - which has to be called out - against the Jewish community, which we need to be doing everything within our power to stop."
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the motive behind the foiled plot was 'sickening'. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
Cabinet's National Security Committee is expected to be briefed on the matter on Thursday.
The caravan, which was packed with enough explosives for a 40-metre-wide blast, was left abandoned for 12 days on a semi-rural road at Dural, in northwest Sydney, before being discovered on January 19.
In it were notes containing the addresses of Jewish people and institutions.
The discovery triggered a multi-agency investigation involving more than 100 counter-terrorism officials.
But the probe and the vehicle's discovery were not made public for 10 days, a move that drew criticism from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
The revelation of an apparent discovery in NSW of a caravan laden with explosives intended for a synagogue is as sickening as it is horrifying. It is a grave and sinister escalation in this insidious rise of unchecked antisemitism in our country.— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) January 29, 2025
"(This) is a grave and sinister escalation in this insidious rise of unchecked anti-Semitism in our country," he said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
"It is incumbent on the federal government ... to say when they knew about this sickening incident, who is behind it and what steps they took to protect Australia's Jewish community."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would not go into details but said it was necessary to provide agencies with operational control.
"It's important that politicians don't try to score political points if it undermines those very investigations," he told ABC Radio.
"We're doing everything that we can and the fact that people are being detained, arrested, charged, kept in the clink without bail, indicates that that's the case."
The incident has not yet been officially designated by police as a terrorist event, but Mr Albanese said he agreed with the NSW premier's use of the terrorism label.
"It's clearly designed to harm people, but it's also designed to create fear in the community and that is the very definition," he said.
The caravan's discovery is among the latest in a series of incidents targeting the Jewish community.
Cars have been set alight, a synagogue burnt down and anti-Semitic slurs painted on buildings and cars in a spate of attacks that have escalated in frequency and severity since December.
