Anthony Albanese vows to deploy all resources against antisemitism as criticism mounts following Bondi attack | Anthony Albanese


Anthony Albanese says his government will dedicate “every single resource required” to eradicate antisemitism in Australia following the Bondi terror shooting, after envoy Jillian Segal and the Coalition accused Labor of not doing enough to fight hate against Jewish communities.

National cabinet was due to meet on Monday afternoon, after the national security committee of federal cabinet convened again.

Segal, the special envoy to combat antisemitism, is seeking an urgent acceleration of her recommendations to the government, released in July, saying “calling it out is not enough”.

Albanese described as “pure evil” the attack on Bondi beach allegedly by a Sydney father and son which has left at least 16 people dead and dozens in hospital. But opposition leader Sussan Ley claimed “antisemitism in Australia has been left to fester” by the Labor government, while former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg accused political leaders of “little more than hollow words”.

“We have seen a clear lack of leadership in keeping Jewish Australians safe,” said Ley on Monday morning.

“We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated…”

World leaders have expressed their horror at Sunday’s attack, which is being treated by police as a terrorist incident. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed Albanese’s government “did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia, you did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country”.

Asked about the comments on Monday, Albanese did not respond directly, but said “this is a moment for national unity”.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” he said.

“The Jewish community are hurting today. Today, all Australians wrap our arms around them and say, we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out antisemitism. It is a scourge and we will eradicate it together … We will dedicate every single resource that is required in responding to this.”

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, called for “strong and clear repudiation of antisemitism in all of its forms … whether it’s destructive, horrible acts of violence or … internet posts.”

Ley, speaking in Sydney, demanded the government implement all of Segal’s recommendations – which called for tougher legislation on antisemitic conduct and protest activity, tougher screening of visa applications, terminating funding to universities and arts institutions failing to take action against antisemitism, and a plan to “monitor media organisations … to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.

The government is still considering its response to Segal’s recommendations, as well as separate recommendations from its envoy against Islamophobia, Aftab Malik.

Ley was critical there had not been tougher action against student protests, and said the Coalition would support recalling parliament to pass tougher laws or fund more security for Jewish community sites.

“We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated,” she said. “Everything must change from today in how governments respond.”

Segal said Albanese and Minns were right to condemn antisemitism, but demanded more action.

“Calling it out is not enough. We need a whole series of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders, community activities. It has got to be a whole society approach,” she told Guardian Australia.

“I think that the government needs to accelerate what it needs to do and I am hoping to meet with the prime minister and members of the government to convey to them an acceleration of the plan.”

Albanese said on Sunday night the government was “continuing to work on all of those issues” in Segal’s report, but said the government was considering additional funding for security.

“We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders. We’ve continued to take all the advice from the security agencies to put in place special measures, and we will continue to do so,” he said.

Segal compared the scale of the attack to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, and said police and government needed to address firearms laws.

“The prime minister spoke of Jewish members of the community being embraced. I think that’s wonderful, but we need more than embracing them. We need a whole series of actions to convey to the rest of the community how hateful action is completely unacceptable.”

Frydenberg, who is said to be considering a return to federal politics after losing his seat at the 2022 election, said: “Everything must now change from here.

“The law must be enforced. Those who spew hate must no longer be tolerated. We cannot as a country continue as we have done. Our leaders must now finally stand up, accept responsibility for what has happened on their watch and close this shameful chapter in our nation’s history,” he said.

Minns said the NSW government was already considering changes to gun laws, after police found one of the shooters held a firearms licence and owned six weapons.

“I made it clear last night that we will take every step we possibly can to keep our community safe and we’ll be looking at law reform along that route. And this is an intolerable situation.”



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