Former prime minister John Howard has castigated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong for lacking moral leadership on antisemitism, and called the government’s push to reform gun laws a “big attempt at diversion” from the crisis of hatred towards Jewish people.
In a series of scathing remarks that ramp up the political recriminations after Sunday’s terror attack at a Hanukkah event killed 15 victims, the Liberal giant said Australia’s Jewish community had been failed, and a big part of that rested with the federal government’s leaders.
Former prime minister John Howard speaks to the media on Tuesday.Credit: Dylan Coker
“People do take a lead from their leaders. Now, we’ve been treated to a big attempt at a diversion: changes to gun laws,” Howard, 86, told Sky News on Tuesday morning.
“The Australian people are not stupid. They can work out a phony, they can work out when they’re being treated to weasel words. And I’m afraid on this issue, that’s what the prime minister did.
“Now I’m not going to malign his character and everything, but he’s let the Jewish community down on this simply by not enthusiastically and energetically denouncing antisemitism.”
Howard then gave a press conference, in which he said Albanese equivocated in his language when he spoke about antisemitism, and had taken more pleasure from recognising Palestine than standing with Israel. He also criticised Wong for neglecting to visit the communities of Israel that were directly assaulted by Hamas in October 2023, during her visit to the country in January 2024.
“We have failed in our obligation to a part of our community, and I’m ashamed of that. Part of that failure, a big part of it, has to be taken by the leaders,” Howard said.
“I don’t want to place emphasis on an individual action of the prime minister. It’s his collective failure over the last 2½ years, to do enough by words and deeds … to demonstrate his detestation of antisemitism.”
Howard’s commentary departs from the more bipartisan approach that other political leaders have taken since a father and son killed 15 people in Sunday’s terror attack.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Tuesday said the Albanese government had taken too long to act decisively on antisemitism, and was warned of rising hate directed at Jewish Australians. However, she did not blame Albanese for the attack nor endorse strong criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said Albanese’s “call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire”.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, also steered clear of making political commentary as he attended the massacre site on Tuesday. “I am not here to point fingers,” he said. “I am here to embrace, I am here to hug the community, the Australian citizens that care about life here in Australia, and care about the Australians of Jewish faith.”
Albanese has come under criticism for his response to antisemitism since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 and which stoked domestic tensions. Jewish community leaders and former opposition leader Peter Dutton repeatedly accused him of failing to clamp down on antisemitism following a spate of attacks and threats at the start of the year – some of which were later linked to organised crime and Iranian interests seeking to capitalise on the crisis.
The prime minister has described Sunday’s attack as an “act of evil antisemitism” and pledged to stamp it out. On Monday night, he refused to engage with Netanyahu’s criticisms that he had done nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday.Credit: Ben Symons
“What [people] require me, as Australia’s prime minister at this time, is to bring the nation together, is to promote unity, is to make sure that what the terrorists seek – which is to divide us as a nation, to pit Australian against Australian – to say this is a moment of national unity,” Albanese said on the ABC’s 7.30 program.
He also disputed Netanyahu’s claim that recognition of a Palestinian state fuelled antisemitism, saying there was no link between the government’s position and the mass shooting. “Most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward,” Albanese said.
Albanese said the government was extending funding to Jewish community security groups and seeing how it could better support Jewish charity efforts. It will also fast-track visa processing for relatives wishing to visit Australia for funerals of the shooting victims.
Howard, in his press conference, said: “Clearly the people to blame for the murders are the murderers, that’s self-apparent.
“But why didn’t Penny Wong visit those areas of Israel that have been most directly assaulted by Hamas when she was there?
“[Albanese has] equivocated, he went out of his way to recognise a [Palestinian] state that’s not ready for international recognition.
“When he made the decision, he seemed to me to derive more satisfaction from that, than he did in promoting our long-standing and harmonious relationship with the state of Israel.”
Howard continued: “His greatest failure is not to provide the moral leadership that a prime minister can in denouncing antisemitism.
“The impression I had was that every time he got onto the subject, he would equate it with discrimination generally … I don’t think he enthusiastically set the tone towards an attack on antisemitism.”
Howard conceded that no single act would have prevented Sunday’s attack. “No sensible man or woman will say, if you’d done this or that … Sunday would not have happened,” he said.
“What you can say is that governments and individuals can do a lot to discourage the spread of prejudice, antisemitism, hatred of Jewish people. And I don’t think the present federal government and the present prime minister have done enough in that area since 2023.”
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