Australian PM announces Royal Commission investigation into Bondi terror attack

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially announced a royal commission into the terror attack on a Chanukah lighting at Bondi Beach last month – ten days after appearing to rule it out.

While in late December Albanese appeared to suggest that such a commission – the highest level independent inquiry in Australia – would risk platforming antisemitism, he said on Thursday that having met with Jewish community representatives, he had come to the conclusion that the high-level independent inquiry was “essential”.

However, Albanese has been criticised over his choice of Virginia Bell, a former Australian High Court justice, to lead the Commission, with Josh Frydenberg, the former head of the country’s Treasury department, stating that “the Prime Minister has been told directly by leaders of the Jewish community that they have serious concerns about this appointment.”

Albanese, who attended his first funeral for a Bondi victim on Wednesday – the former Sydney police detective Peter Meagher, held at the city’s St Mary’s Cathedral – told reporters in Canberra that “”I’ve repeatedly said that our government’s priority is to promote unity and social cohesion, and this is what Australia needs to heal, to learn, to come together in a spirit of national unity… It’s clear to me that a royal commission is essential to achieving this.”

He said the commission would focus on four main areas – investigating the “nature and prevalence of antisemitism” and its “key drivers” in Australia, making recommendations to enforcement, border immigration and security agencies to tackle antisemitism, examining the circumstances surrounding the Bondi attack, and making any other recommendations for strengthening social cohesion and countering the spread of ideological and religiously motivated extremism.”

However, Josh Frydenberg criticised Albanese choice of Bell to head the Commission, writing on social media that “after more than two years of unprecedented hate, harassment and violence directed towards the Jewish community, culminating in Australia’s deadliest terrorist attack at Bondi Beach it is unthinkable the Prime Minister would choose a Commissioner that did not have the total confidence of the Jewish community.”

Although Frydenberg did not specifically say so, it is believed that frustration within the Jewish community at the choice of Bell is linked to her part in an Australian High Court ruling which struck down laws restricting protest because they were deemed to restrict political freedom. One of the consequences of that ruling was a subsequent decision by the New South Wales supreme court, to overturn a decision by the Premier of the province to ban a mass anti-Israel protest which marched through Sydney, including crossing the city’s famous Harbour Bridge, last year.

Speaking to Australian media about the announcement of the Royal Commission, Daniel Aghion, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), said: “The community is relieved that we have been listened to. The victims of Bondi have been demanding a Royal Commission, the Jewish community have been demanding a Royal Commission, and so have a great many Australians who have supported us, stood by us and spoken out publicly.

“It is very, very pleasing to see the government listen to those calls and to answer them.”