Malcolm Turnbull says anti-Semitic flyers distributed in his Sydney electorate are despicable and such racism gnaws away at the foundations of Australian society.

The flyers have been dropped in eastern Sydney letterboxes only weeks after a group of Jewish school children were racially abused on a bus in the area, in Mr Turnbull’s Wentworth electorate.

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The federal communications minister has condemned the flyers.

“They are despicable, they are racist anti-Semitic filth,” Mr Turnbull told ABC radio on Wednesday.

The people behind the flyers were not just seeking to intimidate the nation’s Jewish community, he said.

“They seek and serve to undermine the stability and security of our whole country,” he said.

“They gnaw away at the foundations of the whole society.”

Australia must have zero tolerance for such actions, he said.