I’m sure all our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones in the dreadful attack at Bondi Junction by a crazed Queenslander on the weekend. The attack brought out the very best in many locals, who literally put their bodies on the line to save their fellow shoppers, and the female police officer behaved magnificently in taking out the offender.

I was left wondering what would have happened if he had a gun and not a knife.

We can all thank former PM John Howard and the guts he and his deputy Tim Fischer showed in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre in banning semi-automatic firearms and thus ensuring that Australia did not go down the path of the US in relation to gun crime.

I have always owned and used firearms, but I was happy to support this legislation.

I recall John attending some very vocal and hostile meetings of angry gunowners and facing angry voters who would normally support him. Tim Fischer was even braver. Tim was the National Party leader who stood to lose the most, as a lot of the gunowners were in National Party electorates. The angry gunowners got over it, and sensible gun legislation was passed. It was not easy, but it was the right thing to do.

Contrast this to the gutless display by some current senior Federal Labor luminaries – the PM, Chris Bowen, Tony Burke, Penny Wong, and others – who have started bashing Israel for a drone strike that killed an Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom – accidentally, it seems. They were silent after Hamas terrorists deliberately murdered Galit Carbone, an elderly Australian citizen, when they invaded southern Israel on 7 October last year.

The PM and his comrades seem more concerned with keeping the Greens at bay in seats with large percentages of Muslim voters than taking a principled stand of supporting the only democracy in the Middle East – despite that being unpopular in some sections of the community.

Contrast John Howard and Tim Fischer’s principled stand in 1996, despite the wishes of their gun-supporting constituents. If the PM took a strong stance, the Liberals should support him 100 per cent, and Labor and the Liberals could preference each other and put the anti-Semitic Greens last. Kim Beazley (the greatest ALP PM we never had) supported John and Tim to the hilt with the gun legislation – as it was the right thing to do.

To tacitly excuse Hamas is shocking, and to seek to appease one set of voters is not only gutless but does immense damage to our multicultural society.

Nearly all Jews and Muslims who migrated to Australia did so for a better life for themselves and their families. Most are appalled by what’s happening in the Middle East, and whilst many have strong views on the subject, I’m sure they would respect the PM and his colleagues more if he was not so obviously looking for some kind of cheap electoral advantage out of the Israel/Gaza tragedy.