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Was Albanese’s response to the synagogue attack really that bad? · Inside Politics

0:01
S1: From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
0:04
S1: This is inside politics. I'm Jacqueline Maley, it's Friday, December 13th.
0:12
S1: This week was dominated by the appalling anti-Semitic attack on
0:15
S1: the synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne's south east. There followed
0:20
S1: more attacks in Sydney. A car was torched in the
0:22
S1: eastern suburbs, where there is a strong Jewish community, and
0:25
S1: houses there were graffitied with anti-Israel slogans. The violence was
0:30
S1: followed by political conflict. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was accused
0:34
S1: of not doing enough to quell anti-Semitism and make Jewish
0:37
S1: Australians safe. Peter Dutton was accused of politicising the whole issue.
0:42
S1: So could the PM have handled the week better? And
0:45
S1: what did his handling of the firebombing tell us about
0:48
S1: his powers of leadership? Will Peter Dutton get any blowback
0:51
S1: for his lack of bipartisanship over the issue? Plus, we
0:54
S1: will talk about Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's rejection of the
0:57
S1: Aboriginal flag, and we will check in on Labor's childcare policy.
1:02
S1: Joining us to discuss, we have, as usual, our very
1:04
S1: own David Crowe, chief political correspondent. And we also have
1:07
S1: Paul Satchell, political correspondent. Hi, guys.
1:11
S2: Good morning today.
1:17
S1: Let's recap the facts quickly, David. Last Friday, the Adath
1:21
S1: Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea in south east Melbourne was firebombed
1:25
S1: in a horrific attack. What do we know about the incident?
1:28
S1: Who did it and what was the possible motive for it?
1:30
S2: Well, it's been declared terrorism. The opinion of the authorities
1:34
S2: is that it had an ideological motivation and basically it
1:40
S2: was an anti-Semitic attack.
1:41
S3: Three terrorists are wanted for the firebombing of the Ripponlea synagogue.
1:45
S4: Counter-Terrorism teams from the Victorian and Federal Police are meeting
1:49
S4: today in the wake of last week's fire at a
1:51
S4: Melbourne synagogue.
1:53
S2: They spread an accelerant and lit that as an arson
1:56
S2: attack on this synagogue in Melbourne on Friday morning, in
2:01
S2: the very early hours of Friday morning, one man was injured.
2:04
S2: There were people inside the synagogue at the time that
2:06
S2: this arson attack took place. Nobody died, thank goodness, but
2:11
S2: it was one of the most serious anti-Semitic attacks we've seen.
2:15
S1: Let's turn to the sort of political fight after this
2:17
S1: horrific bombing. Soon after the attack, the prime minister, who
2:21
S1: was in Western Australia at the time, he did put
2:22
S1: out a statement. Right, David?
2:25
S2: Yes. And he condemned the attack. All sides condemned the attack.
2:29
S2: And all sides are concerned about anti-Semitism. The Prime Minister
2:33
S2: responded with a statement on Friday morning. He dialed into
2:36
S2: Melbourne radio to the RAF Epstein Show on ABC Local
2:39
S2: Radio in Melbourne to express his condemnation.
2:43
S5: Condemn. This is an outrage that violence and intimidation and
2:50
S5: destruction at a place of worship is something that we
2:54
S5: should never see in Australia.
2:56
S2: But he was booked to go to Perth for various events, including,
3:00
S2: you know, the opening of a new train line and
3:03
S2: so forth, the kind of things that political leaders do.
3:05
S2: And so he continued with that plan and went to Perth.
3:08
S2: He then visited a synagogue in Perth on Saturday morning
3:12
S2: to show solidarity with the Jewish community. But he did
3:16
S2: some things that then left him exposed to political attack
3:19
S2: as well, because he went and played tennis on Saturday
3:20
S2: afternoon and some people thought that that was inappropriate in
3:23
S2: the circumstances. Meanwhile, the backdrop here is that there was
3:28
S2: this question about whether it was a terrorist attack, and
3:34
S2: there was a question about whether authorities were moving too
3:36
S2: slowly to declare a terrorist incident here. Yeah. Because as
3:42
S2: soon as it's declared a terrorist attack, it sort of
3:45
S2: changes in terms of who's involved in investigating. It no
3:49
S2: longer becomes just a state police matter and goes to
3:53
S2: a joint counter-terrorism task force with the Australian Federal Police involved. Yeah.
3:58
S2: And I think there's been a bit of an overblown
4:00
S2: argument about why didn't political leaders call it terrorism sooner?
4:05
S2: They did that on Monday, but they had to wait
4:08
S2: for the police authorities to decide that it was terrorism.
4:12
S2: And that's what political leaders normally do. They they take
4:14
S2: the advice of the official authorities.
4:17
S1: I want to talk about that because those two things
4:20
S1: became conflated, didn't they? I mean, it took the police
4:23
S1: or the, you know, the relevant law enforcement authorities a
4:25
S1: few days, and it wasn't until Monday that they declared
4:28
S1: it was a terrorist event. And meanwhile, Anthony Albanese has
4:32
S1: been photographed at the tennis. He's not on site. He's
4:35
S1: over in Perth. And, you know, this left him open
4:37
S1: to all these attacks that the government's moved too slowly.
4:40
S1: He hasn't taken it seriously enough and that overall he
4:44
S1: has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism. Paul, this really
4:48
S1: the whole thing conspired to just kind of make a
4:50
S1: few very bad days of headlines for the prime minister
4:53
S1: in particular, didn't it?
4:54
S6: Totally. And I think this synagogue attack has to be
4:56
S6: seen in the broader context of the debate around the
4:59
S6: government's positioning on Israel and the local debate on anti-Semitism.
5:03
S6: There's been months of criticism from the Coalition of labor
5:06
S6: shifting towards the Palestinian side of the question. Penny Wong
5:09
S6: has been accused of all manner of things, from the
5:11
S6: coalition being obsessed with Israel, being an enabler of extremism,
5:16
S6: some pretty trumped up claims just a few days before
5:19
S6: the synagogue attack. The Australian newspaper ran a strong front page,
5:23
S6: which was a statement from the office of the Israeli
5:26
S6: Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, criticising Australia's positioning and suggesting that
5:31
S6: Australia had lost touch with Israel as a traditional ally.
5:36
S6: Then we have the synagogue attack in the early hours
5:39
S6: of Friday morning. Albanese, as David points out, calls into
5:44
S6: Melbourne radio at 830 and says very strongly, very swiftly
5:48
S6: this is an anti-Semitic attack. There are some callers on
5:51
S6: the radio program who say, we don't even know the
5:53
S6: motive yet. How can you call it anti-Semitism? And the
5:56
S6: Prime Minister clearly says to RAF Epstein that any attack
5:59
S6: on any place of worship is a hate crime against
6:02
S6: that group of people. And he was he was he
6:04
S6: was strong on that. So that counters the claims from
6:06
S6: the coalition that he wasn't strong quickly. Then overnight on
6:10
S6: Friday at midnight on on Saturday, I guess the Israeli
6:15
S6: prime minister goes one step further and he does a
6:18
S6: tweet directly from his mouth rather than from his office,
6:21
S6: where he says that the burning of the Adas Israel
6:24
S6: Synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of anti-Semitism. And unfortunately,
6:28
S6: it's impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme
6:32
S6: anti-Israel position of the labor government in Australia, including the
6:35
S6: scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel to, quote,
6:39
S6: bring an end to unlawful occupation. Then he makes the
6:42
S6: contentious claim, which has been criticised even by our own
6:45
S6: anti-Semitism envoy, that anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism. There is no
6:49
S6: fair criticism of Israel. So there's this confluence of events
6:52
S6: and months of criticism about the Prime Minister's strength of
6:55
S6: resolve on this issue. He's then in Perth on Saturday.
6:59
S6: He plays tennis on the weekend. The opposition makes a
7:02
S6: whole set of demands on what he needs to do
7:04
S6: to crack down on anti-Semitism, and it takes him till
7:07
S6: about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, particularly in a press conference
7:11
S6: in the Sydney Holocaust Museum on Wednesday to look like
7:16
S6: he's really feeling the weight of the issue.
7:19
S5: I unequivocally condemn these shameful acts of violence aimed at
7:24
S5: the Jewish community. They are acts which are aimed at
7:29
S5: promoting fear in the community and that, by any definition,
7:35
S5: is what terrorism is about. And we need and to.
7:39
S6: Match the moment in terms of his rhetoric, body language
7:43
S6: and just placing the issue at the forefront of his
7:46
S6: mind and agenda.
7:48
S1: David, he did eventually visit the synagogue on Tuesday this week,
7:52
S1: and it was a bit of a shemozzle, wasn't it?
7:53
S1: It was a bit of a it was chaotic scenes.
7:56
S2: It looked like chaos, I guess, because that's what happens
7:59
S2: often with a media scrum. And there were people there
8:02
S2: who were heckling him.
8:03
S7: Will you stay for tennis? Guys! Push back. Keep going. Mr.
8:07
S7: Prime Minister condemned calls for intifada against Jews.
8:10
S2: But there's a debate about how those, you know, media
8:13
S2: events unfold. They often look like chaos because of the scrum.
8:19
S2: He went into the synagogue, spoke to the Adas Israel
8:23
S2: Congregation members. And I think a really important thing that
8:27
S2: our colleague Chip Le Grand pointed out on a front
8:30
S2: page story in The Age this week. After that, he
8:33
S2: then went to the home of Michael Spiegelman, one of
8:36
S2: the congregation members, and spoke privately to congregation members for
8:41
S2: some time. I think about an hour. So it wasn't
8:43
S2: just about what the cameras saw. And I think it's
8:48
S2: a bit tiresome when political journos talk about optics all
8:51
S2: the time. But let's face it, the optics weren't good,
8:54
S2: and some of the challenge of the week for Anthony
8:57
S2: Albanese has been managing The symbolism of the job, because
9:02
S2: I don't think it's possible to make a rational, coherent
9:06
S2: criticism that he's soft on anti-Semitism. When you look at
9:09
S2: rationally what the government has done, but it's about these
9:12
S2: symbolic aspects of the job that are challenging at the moment.
9:28
S1: My sort of feeling, Paul, is that this this ties
9:31
S1: in very neatly for the opposition into the broader narrative
9:34
S1: of Albanese being weak, perhaps a little bit out of
9:37
S1: his depth, having poor judgment, not being able to fully
9:40
S1: handle or step up to a sort of crisis like this.
9:44
S6: I agree, and I think the symbolism was made clear
9:48
S6: on Wednesday when the Prime Minister wanted his day to
9:51
S6: be dominated by a big rally style speech in Brisbane,
9:55
S6: in the seat of the Greens MP max Chandler-mather, who
9:58
S6: he despises, and the feeling is mutual. Talking about a
10:02
S6: new childcare policy which will give a guarantee three days
10:06
S6: of childcare subsidy to almost all parents. Labour sees this
10:09
S6: as a big plank of its re-election pitch. The Prime
10:13
S6: Minister is on solid ground and comfortable and delivers with vigour.
10:17
S6: These kind of services policies, these kind of tangible cost
10:21
S6: of living things that Labour is traditionally strong on. But
10:26
S6: the days national media was dominated by what he did
10:29
S6: a few hours later when he was at the Sydney synagogue,
10:31
S6: giving a quite emotional press conference addressing one of these
10:35
S6: issues that draws in social attitudes, national character, some of
10:40
S6: the federal government issues that are less about service delivery
10:44
S6: and childcare and HECS and transport and these kinds of
10:48
S6: things where the Prime Minister is more comfortable but requires
10:51
S6: a kind of big picture national leadership and kind of
10:55
S6: capturing the social zeitgeist. These kinds of moments where the
10:59
S6: coalition have framed the Prime Minister to be unable to.
11:03
S6: To match up to.
11:04
S1: David, I want to get your take on that because,
11:06
S1: I mean, it's open to debate how much an average
11:09
S1: voter is attention they're going to be paying to the
11:12
S1: tweets of Benjamin Netanyahu or what votes Australia is taking
11:16
S1: at the United Nations, and whether or not we can
11:19
S1: actually draw a causative link between what we're doing at
11:22
S1: a diplomatic level on Israel and a horrible, violent terrorist
11:27
S1: attack against the synagogue in Melbourne. And then we had
11:30
S1: attacks in Sydney, too. What are the political ramifications of
11:33
S1: all this for Albanese? If we really step back and
11:35
S1: realize that most people won't be taking notice of the
11:38
S1: minutiae of it?
11:39
S2: I think it's an incredibly challenging time for an Anthony Albanese,
11:42
S2: because we know and the Resolve political monitor that we publish,
11:46
S2: that the labor primary vote is down and Anthony Albanese
11:51
S2: is standing personally in the polls, is also down. And
11:55
S2: Peter Dutton, as the alternative prime minister, has been gaining ground.
11:59
S2: So that's the backdrop. And so looking like the. Authority
12:05
S2: figure looking like you're in charge and you're in control
12:08
S2: is fundamental to the task of being prime minister. And
12:11
S2: that's where this narrative about anti-Semitism is so damaging to
12:18
S2: Anthony Albanese. And I mean, let's face it, where's that
12:21
S2: narrative coming from? It's coming from the coalition. It's also
12:24
S2: coming from the News Corp media, most prominently in terms
12:29
S2: of running a narrative that is weak. Um, now, you know,
12:33
S2: blaming the media isn't the way for the government to
12:35
S2: get out of this. Even though he has made a
12:37
S2: remark in cabinet about News Corp, the way out of
12:40
S2: it is to get on top of these issues and
12:43
S2: to make sure you manage the symbolic aspect of the job,
12:46
S2: you manage the optics and that you're in command and
12:49
S2: in control and that's, you know, just incredibly challenging. I
12:55
S2: think that, you know, the coalition attack line has really
12:59
S2: moved on to be that. Not just that Albanese is
13:03
S2: weak on this, but that the government has enabled these
13:07
S2: anti-Semitic attacks. And that's a quite an outtheir claim, I think.
13:12
S1: Yeah. And as you say, there's not actually any sort
13:14
S1: of firm evidence for that claim. By contrast, the opposition
13:18
S1: and Peter Dutton in particular is really positioning himself as
13:23
S1: a strongman. So, you know, a strongman on immigration, a
13:26
S1: strongman on anti-Semitism. He went to the synagogue sooner than
13:30
S1: Albanese did to pay his respects. He's also made this
13:34
S1: sort of announcement this week, if you can call it that.
13:37
S1: He went on Sky news and said that if he
13:39
S1: becomes prime minister, he will he will abolish the Aboriginal
13:41
S1: flag as a backdrop for prime ministerial press conferences and
13:45
S1: so forth, which has sort of become the convention under Albanese.
13:48
S8: If we're asking people to to identify with different flags,
13:51
S8: no other country does that, and we are dividing our
13:55
S8: country unnecessarily. Now, we should have respect for the.
13:57
S1: Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this,
13:59
S1: because my feeling is that it's a little bit of
14:01
S1: a distraction, and we should be focusing on more on
14:03
S1: the policy aspects of what the opposition is putting forward.
14:06
S1: But what did you make of this, Paul?
14:09
S6: I think there's been a lot of commentary since that.
14:12
S6: It's a deliberate distraction from where they're going next. On
14:16
S6: their highly anticipated and likely to be very contentious nuclear
14:20
S6: policy costings, which we expect on Friday. I had this conversation,
14:26
S6: I think, with you, David, on Wednesday, about whether these
14:30
S6: distractions are deliberate to the extent that they are literally pre-planned,
14:35
S6: as in, there's a question planted by a friendly journalist,
14:38
S6: like the Sky news political commentator Peta Credlin, who asked
14:41
S6: the question that drew this answer out from Dutton. My
14:44
S6: sense is that these things are not quite so sophisticated.
14:47
S6: He likes to do Sky news interviews and TV interviews
14:51
S6: because he's talking to his base. Obviously there are not
14:55
S6: that many viewers on Sky news, but it's a bit
14:56
S6: of red meat that keeps keeps that group, please. And
15:00
S6: it's also comfortable territory for him to send messages out.
15:03
S6: I think we may read too much into these kinds
15:07
S6: of moments. And his strategy. I think he might have
15:10
S6: just been giving an answer that was honest, and that
15:14
S6: aligns with everything we know about his stance on these issues.
15:18
S6: This is someone who campaigned fiercely against the voice to Parliament,
15:22
S6: when it looked like a vast majority of Australians were
15:25
S6: supporting it. This is someone who didn't go to the
15:28
S6: apology to Indigenous Australians and subsequently apologised to that. Um,
15:32
S6: this is someone who occupies a political territory in Queensland
15:37
S6: in the early part of his career, where he was
15:39
S6: at points, kind of in the same contest as Pauline Hanson.
15:43
S6: So we know where Dutton sits on these issues. The
15:46
S6: voice vote proved that a lot of other Australians sit
15:49
S6: in the same position. Um, and I'm not I'm not
15:52
S6: quite sure if it's if we can call it a
15:55
S6: it was a useful way to occupy the airwaves when
15:58
S6: maybe we might have been talking about nuclear costings this week,
16:00
S6: but I'm not sure it's that sophisticated.
16:02
S2: I think he was playing to the base. I don't
16:06
S2: think it gains him any ground where he really needs
16:08
S2: to gain ground. And most importantly, he stopped talking about
16:13
S2: household budgets and the cost of living and that is
16:18
S2: what's going to decide the election. Anthony Albanese was talking
16:22
S2: about household budgets with childcare. There was an attempt by
16:25
S2: the government to get back onto those bread and butter
16:29
S2: issues for voters. But there's been no similar attempt by
16:32
S2: Peter Dutton. And I think he was distracted in a
16:34
S2: way that he didn't need to be.
16:35
S1: We haven't had a chance to talk about that childcare policy,
16:38
S1: which is actually pretty significant. The government has promised up
16:40
S1: to three days a week with childcare subsidies. They've scrapped
16:43
S1: the activity test. So, you know, the primary carer won't
16:45
S1: actually have to be working to avail themselves of childcare subsidies.
16:49
S1: It's going to cost the taxpayer $427 million over five years.
16:53
S1: And it's, you know, it's pretty it's pretty generous because
16:57
S1: families earning up to $530,000 a year as a family,
17:01
S1: which is a lot of money. Will be able to
17:03
S1: access it. David, do you think it's a winner of
17:05
S1: a policy?
17:06
S2: Yes, I do, because I think it's another step towards
17:08
S2: universal childcare and it's another step towards helping families with
17:13
S2: the cost of raising children. There will be some debate
17:16
S2: about the idea that there's no longer an activity test.
17:19
S2: For instance, for a mother who's got a show that,
17:22
S2: you know, she needs to go back to work in
17:24
S2: order to get the childcare, they get a minimum of
17:26
S2: three days, regardless of any activity test, but they are
17:30
S2: acting on a recommendation from the Productivity Commission, saying that
17:33
S2: this will increase workforce participation. And it's good for the economy.
17:37
S2: So they've got solid economic advice that there is an
17:40
S2: economic gain for the entire country from doing this policy.
17:43
S2: It does come at a budget cost. The government kind
17:47
S2: of lost a bit of traction here this week, because
17:50
S2: some people would not have even noticed this move this week,
17:53
S2: but it's another step towards a bigger, bolder childcare policy
17:58
S2: next year, closer to the election when we will see.
18:01
S2: Anthony Albanese talk about this ambition to have universal childcare,
18:05
S2: to be helping parents with children.
18:07
S1: Paul and David, thank you so much for coming in. David,
18:10
S1: we will see you next week. Paul. I guess we'll
18:12
S1: see you next year.
18:13
S6: Thanks, Jackie. Cheers.
18:18
S1: Today's episode of Inside Politics was produced by Kai Wong
18:21
S1: with technical assistance from Debbie Harrington and Belen Sanchez. Our
18:26
S1: executive producer is Tammy Mills. Our head of audio is
18:29
S1: Tom McKendrick. Inside politics is a production of The Age
18:33
S1: and The Sydney Morning Herald. If you enjoy the show
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18:41
S1: Search the age or Smh.com.au forward slash. Subscribe. I'm Jacqueline Maley,
18:48
S1: this is inside politics. Thank you for listening.