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Do we need a Bondi royal commission? · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christian Amiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, December twenty two, twenty twenty five. An offer
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  Speaker 1: by Prime Minister Anthony Alberanesi to speak at Sunday Nights
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  Speaker 1: vigil for victims of the Bondai Beach massacre was rejected
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  Speaker 1: by organizers. A Jewish leader told The Australian the PM
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  Speaker 1: was only invited out of respect for the office, but
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  Speaker 1: claimed any address given by Albanesi would be drowned out
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  Speaker 1: by booze. It comes as the Prime Minister faces mounting
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  Speaker 1: pressure to call a federal Royal commission into the Bondai
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  Speaker 1: Beach terror attack, but he says his government needs to
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  Speaker 1: act quickly and he's ordered a review of the nation's
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  Speaker 1: intelligence capabilities. But as Australians real from our nation's worst
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  Speaker 1: ever terror attack, is it enough. That's today's episode at
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  Speaker 1: six forty seven On Sunday, exactly one week since two
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  Speaker 1: gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Haneker event at Bondai Beach,
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  Speaker 1: quiet descended over the iconic stretch of sand in Sydney's
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  Speaker 1: Eastern suburbs and around the nation. Waves could be heard
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  Speaker 1: crashing nearby, as residents, politicians, life savers, law enforcement officers
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  Speaker 1: and members of the shattered Jewish community paused to remember
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  Speaker 1: the fifteen innocent lives lost. Surrounded by a sea of
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  Speaker 1: bouquets laid this week by mourners. They prayed for the
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  Speaker 1: quick recovery of dozens injured in the chaos, and gave
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  Speaker 1: thanks to those who ran towards the danger. All day,
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  Speaker 1: flags around Australia had flown at half mast as a
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  Speaker 1: sign of respect for the dead. Candles appeared in windows
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  Speaker 1: of homes far from Bondai Beach, but where the devastation
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  Speaker 1: has been keenly felt, and out of the silence came
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  Speaker 1: a rallying cry.
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  Speaker 2: So what the Prime Minister must do now? He must
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  Speaker 2: call a royal commission. He must ban the preachers, he
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  Speaker 2: must ban the protests. He must prosecute the incitement.
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  Speaker 1: This is the former Treasurer Josh Fridenberg. In a fiery
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  Speaker 1: impromptu speech given at the site of the massacre on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 1: he told The Australian the extremism that allegedly motivated Sunday's
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  Speaker 1: terror attack at Bondai Beach isn't contained to New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales and that means it can't be meaningfully addressed by
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  Speaker 1: a state based inquiry. Fridenburg is one in a chorus
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  Speaker 1: of voices calling for a federal royal commission into the
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  Speaker 1: incident in which fifty year old Sajid Akram and his
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  Speaker 1: twenty four year old son Navid Akram allegedly fired dozens
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  Speaker 1: of rounds of ammunition into the event celebrating the first
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  Speaker 1: day of Harneka, the Jewish festival of Light. Sajid was
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  Speaker 1: shot dead by police at the scene, while Navid is
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  Speaker 1: under police guard in hospital. He was charged with fifty
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  Speaker 1: nine offenses after waking from a coma on Wednesday afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: including fifteen counts of murder, forty counts of wounding with
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  Speaker 1: intent to murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act.
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  Speaker 1: New South Wales Premier Chris Mins says his government will
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  Speaker 1: urgently mount an inquiry into the incident on the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of the most terrible events that have
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  Speaker 1: hit in New South Wales in decades.
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  Speaker 3: If we're not going to have a royal commission for
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  Speaker 3: something like this, when would you have one.
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  Speaker 1: Alex Rifchin, the co Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Council,
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  Speaker 1: of Australian Jury says a federal Royal Commission is essential
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  Speaker 1: in preventing another tragedy. These are the answers that we
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  Speaker 1: need and the fact that we're need to engage in
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  Speaker 1: an argument with the federal government about a World Commission.
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  Speaker 1: It's insulting, frankly, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi won't budge.
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  Speaker 3: I will support whatever actions in New South Wales.
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  Speaker 2: God take.
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  Speaker 3: We are working in lockstep. So when we see that
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  Speaker 3: where where niss Ath Wales have made an announcement this morning,
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  Speaker 3: they're working on that.
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  Speaker 1: The PM instead ordered a review of Australia's intelligence capabilities,
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  Speaker 1: led by former top diplomat Dennis Richardson. Dennis Shanahan is
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  Speaker 1: The Australian's national editor. Dennis, do you think that's adequate?
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  Speaker 3: Look, no, I don't now. The Bondai massacre has drawn
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  Speaker 3: a whole new line under the strategic and domestic security atmosphere.
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  Speaker 3: It has changed and I'm being told by senior intelligence
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  Speaker 3: officers that there has been for too long an assumption,
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  Speaker 3: almost a denial, that we are in this very bad position,
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  Speaker 3: which we are clearly in and which has been absolutely
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  Speaker 3: crystallized by the Bondai massacre. Now I think yes, the
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  Speaker 3: intelligence agencies, to police, the cooperation all need to be investigated.
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  Speaker 3: They need to be investigated quickly and with rigor. But
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  Speaker 3: it also has to be wide enough for shortcomings, for mistakes,
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  Speaker 3: and also for the question of resources. Are the agencies
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  Speaker 3: and the federal police getting enough people? We saw initially
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  Speaker 3: that one of these people, one of the shooters, was
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  Speaker 3: a red flag under Asiel. How did it come that
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  Speaker 3: he could go to the Philippines come back and there
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  Speaker 3: was no further investigation apparently, So these are issues that
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  Speaker 3: need to be fully investigated with a full whole of
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  Speaker 3: government approach, looking at all the agencies. And already Anthony
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  Speaker 3: Albanez has been accused of not doing enough. I think
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  Speaker 3: he will face much more pressure to have a wider
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  Speaker 3: security examination. But for the wider issues of the rise
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  Speaker 3: of anti Semitism, the hate preachers, the spread of anti
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  Speaker 3: Semitism through the institutions, particularly universities, educational institutions aren'ts the
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  Speaker 3: creative field. This is where a Royal commission can be
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  Speaker 3: conducted and also test the strength of our resistance and
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  Speaker 3: our response to them. Now chris Min's is already committed
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  Speaker 3: to one that's a New South Wales commission. Victoria is
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  Speaker 3: indicated that they are interested in a royal commission as well.
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  Speaker 3: Anthony Albernezi has said basically so far, no, we're not
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  Speaker 3: interested in the federal royal commission. Well, I think that
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  Speaker 3: at the very least the federal government the Commonwealth has
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  Speaker 3: to agree to deal with the States on any royal commission.
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  Speaker 3: But secondly, is clear radical terrorism is not restricted to
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  Speaker 3: New South Wales. We've had synagogue burnings in Melbourne as
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  Speaker 3: well as Sydney, and Anthony Alpernes he still has the time,
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  Speaker 3: he can still turn around and say yes, I think
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  Speaker 3: we should all join and have a national a national approach,
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  Speaker 3: a national royal commission into all of these issues. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that that the momentum for a royal commission
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  Speaker 3: is so great now that he really should, in his
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  Speaker 3: own interests, but in the national interests, agree to a
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  Speaker 3: royal commission as well. And we have seen previous Row
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  Speaker 3: commissions in New South Wales where the Commonwealth did not
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  Speaker 3: cooperate fully. Separate issues admittedly, but it does hamper a
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  Speaker 3: state led royal commission. I think the size of this
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  Speaker 3: problem and the magnitude of the impact of the Bondai
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  Speaker 3: massacre requires a led royal committit into all those other
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  Speaker 3: institutional issues which won't be dealt with by the specific
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  Speaker 3: security inquiry.
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  Speaker 1: The message from the Albanese government in the aftermath of
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  Speaker 1: last Sunday's terror attack has been that royal commissions are cumbersome,
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  Speaker 1: they are slow, and that they need to act now.
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  Speaker 1: How do they balance the immediate need to reassure the
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  Speaker 1: community that they are acting on this issue and to
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  Speaker 1: do the detailed work that so clearly needs to be
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  Speaker 1: done here.
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  Speaker 3: The reaction from the Alberanazi government has been piecemeal. It's
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  Speaker 3: been slow and then immediately criticized for not doing enough,
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  Speaker 3: and it seems to be being dragged into everything. And
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  Speaker 3: this goes back to the point that I made earlier
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  Speaker 3: that intelligence officers fear that we are completely unprepared for
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  Speaker 3: the global and domestic terror threats we face, and that
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  Speaker 3: we need to address them now. What we have to do,
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  Speaker 3: and what the Prime Minister has to do is say
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  Speaker 3: right the Bondai massacre is the moment that changes things.
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  Speaker 3: We actually need to be reassured that there is a
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  Speaker 3: strong inquiry into the operation of the intelligence and police services,
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  Speaker 3: as well as a broader reassurance for the public that
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  Speaker 3: these wider issues, which are at the bottom of so
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  Speaker 3: much of what's happened in the last two years, that
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  Speaker 3: they are properly examined and independently examined by royal.
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  Speaker 1: Commission coming up. Why the Prime Minister might be balking
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  Speaker 1: at the possibility of a royal commission. We've been talking
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  Speaker 1: about the possibility of a federal royal commission, but maybe
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  Speaker 1: the average Australian doesn't actually really know what a royal
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  Speaker 1: commission does. So if indeed one does proceed in this instance,
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  Speaker 1: what would it do, what would it be looking for?
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is of course the old political saying about
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  Speaker 3: a royal commission. You never call for a royal commission
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  Speaker 3: unless you know what it's going to find. Because there
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  Speaker 3: have been royal commissions called and all of a sudden
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  Speaker 3: they start to unravel and uncover all sorts of things.
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  Speaker 3: And so I think that one of the reasons the
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister will be balking at this at the moment
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  Speaker 3: he will be delaying any decision is because he has
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  Speaker 3: to decide what are the terms of investigation. The point
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  Speaker 3: of a royal commission is that it's supposed to get
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  Speaker 3: to the bottom without fear or favor and without obstruction
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  Speaker 3: from government or politicians or anyone else. And that's why
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  Speaker 3: a Commonwealth federal Royal Commission is necessary because it carries
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  Speaker 3: with it the full weight of the federal government and
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  Speaker 3: it turns into a national, whole of government, whole of
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  Speaker 3: nation response. So whatever the Royal commission, if there is
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  Speaker 3: a royal commission, then it has to be as wide
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  Speaker 3: as possible because of the magnitude of the problem we
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  Speaker 3: are now facing, which we've been facing now for decades,
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  Speaker 3: and we need to front up and say the moment
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  Speaker 3: has come in.
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  Speaker 1: A terrible way.
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  Speaker 3: The death that there's poor people in Bondi could be
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  Speaker 3: a great answer for Australia to get across the huge
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  Speaker 3: challenges it faces and the lack of preparation we've had
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  Speaker 3: for ten years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think there is some fear there on
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  Speaker 1: the part of the Albanese government that a royal commission
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  Speaker 1: would actually confirm what critics have been saying that this
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  Speaker 1: government has missed this moment, that it has been too
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  Speaker 1: slow to act on anti semitism and to actually prevent
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  Speaker 1: a tragedy like this from happening.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, Anthony Albanesi is right in fearing criticism and he
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  Speaker 3: has been reluctant to make public appearances at this stage.
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  Speaker 3: And we can only remember what happened to Scott Morrison
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  Speaker 3: when he'd been away for the bushfires in Hawaii, came back,
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  Speaker 3: he went down to meet victims of the bushfires and
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  Speaker 3: he was told off. It turned into a complete political
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  Speaker 3: disaster for Scott Morrison. And if Anthony Albernazi is anything,
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  Speaker 3: he's a politician and he knows how those things can
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  Speaker 3: affect you. And so if it does agree to a
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  Speaker 3: royal commission, it will be one which will be carefully handled.
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  Speaker 3: The parameters will be strict, the terms of reference will
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  Speaker 3: be quite narrow. But he will hope that that will
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  Speaker 3: answer the critics if he does call raw commission.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor. You can read
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  Speaker 1: his commentary as well as the latest from Bondai Beach
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au