Follow our live coverage of the Bondi shooting here.
It took him four days, but Anthony Albanese finally conceded on Thursday that his government could and should have done more to stop the rise of antisemitism in Australia. His belated concession that “of course, more could always have been done”, in the face of the raw anger and overwhelming grief of the Jewish community, was the absolute minimum after more than two years of warnings and an escalating series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues and businesses.
Illustration by Simon Letch
The past week has been one of the most awful, bitter and partisan I have witnessed in more than 15 years of writing about federal politics. And Albanese, a partisan political warrior since the day he joined the Labor Party as a teenager, has struggled to meet the moment at times.
He has faced an escalating series of attacks from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, members of her frontbench, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Albanese and his comrades have said, both privately and publicly, that some of these attacks have been party-political.
There is an element of truth to that. Albanese has not been afforded the bipartisanship that Tony Abbott received from Bill Shorten after the Lindt Cafe siege, or the support John Howard received from the Labor opposition after the Bali bombings.
Yes, in some respects, this is unfair to Albanese. But those same Liberal politicians have been echoing the sentiments of Australia’s Jewish community and, as uncomfortable as they are for the government to hear, they had to be said. Because it is an uncomfortable truth that Australia’s Jewish community has not felt safe for more than two years, with security guards needed at schools and synagogues, and regular pro-Palestinian protests on the streets of our major cities.
Put aside the partisan politics for a moment and think about that for a moment: would we accept an Australia in which it was the norm for Catholic schools to have security stationed out the front? Or Hindu schools? Or Islamic schools? Of course not. But this has been just one of the realities of Jewish life in Australia for far too long, along with intimidation on the streets.
The Jewish community and the Coalition, as it turned out, were right all along to warn about the rise of antisemitism. It brought us to the deaths of 15 innocent people and the wounding of dozens more in the shooting on Sunday.
Albanese has done the right thing, belatedly, and announced five law changes to crack down on hate speech and target Islamic hate preachers. The measures include offences for promoting violence, increased penalties and a regime to list organisations that engage in hate speech. An antisemitism education taskforce will be led by David Gonski and include Australia’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal. It will spend a year examining how to tackle the rise of antisemitism on university campuses.
This is in addition to tightening Australia’s gun laws, announced earlier this week, and is designed to respond to the recommendations of Segal, whose report has been gathering dust for six months.
Who would want to be Albanese right now? The prime minister has had to absorb, in the full glare of public attention, the righteous anger and grief of Australia’s Jewish community. He has not been invited to the funerals of those who were callously murdered on the beach at Bondi, even as Sussan Ley, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Governor-General Sam Mostyn have attended those events.
Albanese revealed that he had had private conversations, in person and on the phone, with the families of those murdered. “I have had some difficult conversations,” he said, “but my job is not difficult here. The difficulty is with the families, who are grieving, of these victims. That is who my sympathy is for because it is them who are going through an incredibly traumatic experience.”
It remains to be seen whether Albanese’s measures will be enough to begin the process of tackling antisemitism in Australia. They are a good start.
Now the opposition needs to dial back its criticism of the prime minister or risk looking overly partisan at a time of national tragedy. (Many Australians believe it has already been too partisan, if the emails I have received and the letters pages of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are any guide.)
This week I spoke to Vic Alhadeff, the former chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, and he said simply: “There’s no going back to before Bondi. There’s no going back to before the past two years of antisemitic incidents in this country.
“What we need right now is to repair and rebuild, to reimagine what tomorrow should look like in terms of acceptance of difference and respect for diversity. We cannot allow the upsurge of bigotry which has so tarnished this country to become the new normal.”
It’s sound advice. For his next step, the most courageous thing for the prime minister to do is: return to the scene of the massacre at Bondi and grieve with the survivors. He has not visited the site since Monday morning, although he has done plenty, including conducting at least three meetings of the National Security Committee of cabinet, convening national cabinet and securing agreement to national gun law reform, visiting survivors such as the heroic Ahmed al Ahmed in hospital, attending an interfaith service at St Mary’s Cathedral, visiting Bondi police, and meeting Jewish leaders.
Albanese might well receive a mixed reception but as prime minister he must meet the moment, and listen to the grief and the anger of those families who lost loved ones, stand shoulder to shoulder with them and speak plainly about what his government will do to confront antisemitism, rather than talk defensively about what his government has done already.
Albanese had seemed to be in a defensive crouch until Thursday, shrinking in to himself as the nation’s wounds grew and partisanship escalated. These days will define his prime ministership, for better or worse.
Bondi’s failures are not owned solely by the federal government. State government and security agencies bear some responsibility. But as prime minister, Albanese does need to bring the country together. He needs to step up to the role of mourner in chief.
For now, Australians are not united in their grief but are divided by their anger. It is tearing at this country’s social cohesion. And that has to stop.
James Massola is chief political commentator.
Bondi Beach incident helplines:
- Bondi Beach Victim Services on 1800 411 822
- Bondi Beach Public Information & Enquiry Centre on 1800 227 228
- NSW Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 or Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or chat online at kidshelpline.com.au
More coverage on the Bondi terrorist attack
Most Viewed in Politics
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
