In his late Thursday afternoon Canberra media conference to announce a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack, the Prime Minister appeared neither ‘genuine’ nor ‘convincing’.
He failed hopelessly to explain how a Royal Commission can be right now – but not right two weeks ago when calls for one were growing in volume and intensity from the Jewish community and security experts.
Despite the time that has elapsed, Mr Albanese has managed to fumble the appointment of the person to lead the Commission with some Jewish community leaders expressing disappointment over former High Court Judge, Her Hon. Virginia Bell.
In what is seen as perhaps the most inevitable political announcement in Australia in decades – it took three Ministers; Tony Burke (Home Affairs), Michelle Rowland (Attorney General), and Anthony Albanese to deliver the message: the government has listened and is now of the view that nothing less than a Royal Commission will do.
This is, of course, nonsense.
Having repudiated the need for a national inquiry with the scope and powers of a Royal Commission for more than 15 days – the government has been cowed into submission by the force of expert opinion demanding one. Labor had no option but to cave into the pressure that had built up as a result of its own intransigence.
Albanese stressed in his announcement how he’s been listening ‘genuinely’ over the period since the deadly October 14 attacks against Jews at Bondi. In what has been a significant problem for Albanese since the attack – the electorate is increasingly of the view that he is not being ‘genuine’ in what he says or does. They see a political lens being applied to every decision around ‘national security’ which does not sit well with voters.
The Labor government even gave the impression to some – intentionally or not – that work has been going on ‘crafting’ the mechanics of the wide-ranging Royal Commission while they have been ‘genuinely’ listening to key voices, overlapping the period in which it was rejecting the need for a Royal Commission.
The only thing the government has been ‘crafting’ is how to agree to a Royal Commission it previously rejected, while at the same time minimising the political fallout from its own breathtaking inaction that is certainly coming its way as the Inquiry progresses.
Moreover, the government claims to pushing ahead, with urgency, the recommendations of the Special Envoy, Jillian Segal, which have been sitting on the Prime Minister’s desk for months. All this serves to underscore how comprehensively the government underplayed and misread the alarming growth of antisemitism over the crucial two years since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.
The government was quick to point the finger at universities, schools, and even the police for failing to confront unrest in the community – and appears to have largely ignored warnings from the ASIO chief, Mike Burgess, that the threat of a violent attack had risen to ‘probable’.
And so Australia now has a Royal Commission the Jewish Community and so many others wanted and deserve.
Time will tell whether Commissioner Bell and Prime Minister Albanese can deliver a meaningful, worthwhile investigation to the scourge of antisemitism that has divided Australia so obviously for years – but most especially in the last two years.
