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The real reason Albo won’t just say ‘sorry’ · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest News from the Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: December twenty three. New South Wales Parliament is in its
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  Speaker 1: second day of emergency sittings. Premier Chris Mins is seeking
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to jam through sweeping gun law reforms and crackdown on
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: hate speech and chance like globalize the Interfata. As protesters
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: defy the premier, focus has turned sharply to the Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister and why he won't just say a genuine, simple
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  Speaker 1: sorry to the Jewish community for what they say is
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  Speaker 1: a climate of anti Semitism he has allowed to fester.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined by our political editor Jeff Chambers. Jeff, Anthony
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  Speaker 1: Alberanezi seems to have got himself backed into a corner.
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  Speaker 1: Why won't he just say sorry to the Jewish community.
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  Speaker 2: It's not uncommon for political leaders to resist, particularly someone
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  Speaker 2: whose parliamentary career hits thirty next year. He arrived in
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  Speaker 2: nineteene six. There is a sense of a stubbornness and
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  Speaker 2: we've seen this since Anthony Aberanezi became Prime Minister in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Whenever there is a crisis point, he
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  Speaker 2: finds it very difficult to take personal responsibility. This is
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  Speaker 2: Australia's worst ever terrorist attack. It has shown that the
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  Speaker 2: Albanese government's efforts to fight anti Semitism have failed. So
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  Speaker 2: I think for the Jewish community and for the community
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  Speaker 2: more broadly, they just want the Prime Minister to genuinely
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  Speaker 2: say sorry. They want him to say sorry without any caveats,
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  Speaker 2: without any conditions, and every time we've seen him try
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  Speaker 2: to do that, it ends up being I have regrets,
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  Speaker 2: or I take responsibility, or I'm sorry for the experience
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  Speaker 2: of people. And quite often when he tries to start
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  Speaker 2: leaning into it, he then lists off everything that he
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  Speaker 2: has done on anti Semitism. So there is a really
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  Speaker 2: fear resistance from the Prime Minister in terms of doing
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  Speaker 2: what I think would be a really healing point for
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  Speaker 2: the country. It would be a starting point to really
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  Speaker 2: rebuild connections with the Jewish Australian community, for him to
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  Speaker 2: genuinely look down the barrel of the camera and say
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  Speaker 2: I am sorry. And we've seen Chris Mins be able
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  Speaker 2: to do that. He's a labor Premier and the pressure
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  Speaker 2: remains on the Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 1: We all know the difference between a real sorry and
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  Speaker 1: the kind of sorry you give when you're not really
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  Speaker 1: ready to properly apologize and properly take responsibility. This is
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  Speaker 1: something we learn in kindergarten and usually the reason not
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  Speaker 1: to give the full I'm sorry, without any caveats is
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  Speaker 1: that you're not ready for what might come next. You're
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  Speaker 1: not ready to accept some kind of responsibility. We saw
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  Speaker 1: with the apology to the Stolen Generations that Kevin Rudd
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  Speaker 1: made when he first became Prime Minister, that actually, even
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  Speaker 1: when people are concerned about what the consequences might be,
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  Speaker 1: and in that instance there was a lot of concern
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  Speaker 1: that that open the floodgates to all sorts of monetary
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  Speaker 1: claims against the Commonwealth that had not been anticipated. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: that didn't really happen. It was accepted as a genuine
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  Speaker 1: effort by the Aboriginal community. They accepted that as a
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  Speaker 1: genuine show of goodwill. Why do you think Anthony Albanezi
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  Speaker 1: is holding himself back so hard on this one.
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  Speaker 2: I think it goes to that very point where it
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  Speaker 2: costs nothing for an unreserved apology. If you deliver an apology,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone says, Okay, everything is your fault,
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  Speaker 2: You're to blame for everything. But I think there is
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  Speaker 2: a feeling in government ranks that mistakes were made, really
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  Speaker 2: critical mistakes, and that they did allow social cohesion to
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  Speaker 2: tear apart in this country. And I think the concern
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  Speaker 2: is if he doesn't get control of it, if he
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  Speaker 2: doesn't bring the Jewish leaders around the table and listen
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  Speaker 2: to them. That the very thing that led to what
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  Speaker 2: we saw at Bondi. And there's a lot of elements
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  Speaker 2: to that, but that general broad rise of anti Semitism,
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  Speaker 2: these pro Palestinian protests globalize the anti FATA. We're already
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  Speaker 2: seeing that re emerge, and it requires leadership at the
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  Speaker 2: top level. We saw this with John Howard. He was
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  Speaker 2: only a few months into his first term as Prime
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  Speaker 2: Minister after the Port Arthur massacre, and he got up
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  Speaker 2: there with a bulletproof vest on and he said to these,
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  Speaker 2: to his own base, these shooters, where he was taking
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  Speaker 2: questions from them, I have to do the right thing here.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't vote for me, I will respect that,
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  Speaker 2: but this is what I have to do. And at
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  Speaker 2: this point in time, I am concerned that by letting
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  Speaker 2: it run out or creating distractions things like the Richardson
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  Speaker 2: review without taking it seriously, that we're going to go
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  Speaker 2: back to where we were just a few months ago.
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  Speaker 1: There's two ways it could go on there, Jeff, and
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  Speaker 1: I wonder which one you think he's more likely, given
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  Speaker 1: your long experience as a political reporter. Either the Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister will hold the line, there'll be a quiet inquiry
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: into the way the intelligence agencies acted that we may
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  Speaker 1: or may not ever find out the results of that inquiry,
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  Speaker 1: and the demands for an apology will peter out, or
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  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister will realize sometime in the next few
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  Speaker 1: weeks that actually this is not going to stop until
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  Speaker 1: he actually stands up and says I'm sorry. Do you
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  Speaker 1: have a sense of which way it might go?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we have seen experiences with Anthony Abernesi, nothing at
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  Speaker 2: this sort of serious level. But if you, for example,
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  Speaker 2: look at the superannuation tax that Labor introduced early twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty three. It took until several years, but at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day Anthony Aberesi dropped that, and we've
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  Speaker 2: seen other examples of that where pressure bills and now
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  Speaker 2: I would personally, I would hope it wouldn't take focus
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  Speaker 2: groups or polling to direct the Prime Minister in terms
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  Speaker 2: of him taking control of it. But it doesn't come
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  Speaker 2: easily quickly or naturally for some politicians, and for Anthony Aberzi,
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  Speaker 2: he would justly feel like he is not personally the
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  Speaker 2: blame for this, regardless of that, in goodwill and good faith,
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  Speaker 2: a genuine apology will go a very long way. And
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  Speaker 2: then the next step after that, and he's got to
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  Speaker 2: be a believable apology is to sit down with Jewish
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  Speaker 2: Australian leaders and other people and listen to their concerns.
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  Speaker 2: Muslim leaders as well, when we talk about concerns about
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  Speaker 2: pockets of extremism in some of their communities. He's got
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  Speaker 2: to sit down and talk to them, bring people together,
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  Speaker 2: because everyone's talking about it in isolation, but there is
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  Speaker 2: no up top leadership that's really commanding the issue.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's Political editor. Thanks Jeff, Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Check out this evolving story live right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot and come back to the front
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: first thing in the morning for something really special, a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve edition where I speak to our foreign editor
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan. As well as being a friend of the
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• 7:11
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• 7:14
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• 7:18
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• 7:22
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• 7:25
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• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to join us for that special episode right here on
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  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve.