Note: This column was written before a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack was announced by Anthony Albanese.
Happy New Year to all our readers at the Canberra Weekly. I hope you had a good Christmas.
A Prime Minister is meant to lead the country.
If anything demands a federal Royal Commission to ensure a whole-of-government response, it is the Bondi massacre of 15 innocent Australian Jewish citizens. What could be more serious than that? Even our Human Rights Commissioner has called for one, as have people who truly know what they are talking about, including Australian legend General Sir Peter Cosgrove and former Chief Justice of the High Court Sir Robert French, to name but a few.
After the massacre of 53 innocent Muslim Kiwis in Christchurch, New Zealand, Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern showed real compassion and leadership by calling a Royal Commission within 20 hours.
It is an interesting aside that some survivors of that atrocity have since called on Albanese to immediately establish a federal Royal Commission here, saying their Jewish Australian brothers and sisters deserve nothing less, and that the New Zealand Royal Commission helped immensely in the healing process for them.
Albanese, however, seems to have trouble even saying the words “antisemitism” or “Islamic extremism”. It’s pathetic.
His weakness in failing to act decisively to stop hate speech and the increasingly aggressive acts of antisemitism on our streets over the past two years has allowed this evil hatred to fester and expand. His response has been to call for stricter gun laws and a government inquiry into whether the security agencies could have done more.
But the real issue that needs addressing is the vile antisemitism in our community, and it needs to be confronted urgently. A Royal Commission would do this.
Now I must say, few things surprise me these days, but I have been amazed and saddened by how many ordinary Australians have either been complicit in antisemitic acts or, in many instances, have actively supported them. This includes chanting slogans such as “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (that is, the elimination of Jews so that there are no Jews left in what was once Israel).
The federal Greens seem to go out of their way to demonise Israel and to stymie any attempts to adequately address the issue of antisemitism in this country. If the Greens think I am wrong, they merely have to support a federal Royal Commission. That, in itself, would go some way towards helping our battered and bruised Australian Jews regain some faith in this country. Unfortunately, I just cannot see that happening.
Recent exposures of the goings-on in several Labor branches in Sydney have also revealed a growing outbreak of antisemitism in certain sections of the ALP.
I fear for, and feel desperately sorry for, great old ALP stalwarts like my friend, former Labor minister Mike Kelly. Thank God for people like him who are prepared to do battle with their own party in the ALP on this issue.
I would hope this becomes a defining issue that forces Albo to either step up and hold a Royal Commission, or see him drummed out of politics. At this point in Australia’s history, we need a strong Prime Minister, not a weakling.
