Increasingly the horror at Bondi is looking more like the result of a series of failures of intelligence going back well before October 2023. The perpetrators were, at least in their own considerations, operating in the interests of Islamic State. Would individuals so perverted, so dehumanised that they would shoot families with high-powered firearms not have reached this point if the government had cracked down harder on antisemitism?
It’s becoming harder to hold the constituent parts of our polity together. John Howard’s contribution, with its focused criticisms of Albanese, was unbecoming for a former prime minister. The effect of his intervention was to give his assent to the Coalition to go full bore on politicising Bondi. Slagging off the man entrusted with trying to steer the nation through this powerfully difficult moment – whether you like him or not – will ultimately not help Howard’s side of politics. It will hurt it.
It’s so typical of these highly polarised times that the instant criticism of the national cabinet decision to tighten gun laws was that it’s a distraction – a side issue. Typically, Ley, who behaves as though she is still the Liberals’ deputy leader rather than the actual leader, has allowed her colleagues and the Coalition’s media friends to take her to this position too.
Former Australian prime minister John Howard visits the Bondi Pavilion memorial site this week.Credit: James Brickwood
In a statement on Sunday night she said: “I provide the prime minister and all Commonwealth and state agencies with the Coalition’s full and unconditional support as both governments respond to this situation.” On Monday, she set that aside and attacked the government and said it was not the time to be talking about gun laws but later said changes to the laws needed to be on the table. By Tuesday, her home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam refused to endorse the idea of changes without seeing the detail; by then, the line that gun laws were a distraction had hardened. By Wednesday, the National Party took it further and started to develop a version of the argument that guns don’t kill people, people do, so the exclusive focus must be on stamping out antisemitism.
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How wonderful it would be to eradicate this ancient hatred: it would be one of the greatest achievements since the establishment of the first societies. Is it possible in an ever more interconnected world of digital disruption and disinformation campaigns in which antisemitic nations can orchestrate acts of destruction and worse in other countries? What we know already is that our major political parties are extremely unlikely to work together to achieve it.
The Albanese government alienated the Jewish community early on in the Gaza conflict by not using stronger language when condemning antisemitic outbursts and incidents. But the entirety of Albanese’s style as leader is built on caution, and he is not going to change. This is the greatest test of his way of leading. He looks static while his detractors become ever more ambitious in their attacks on him. The Coalition needs to be careful as it uses this rotten situation to score political points. I doubt that most Australians want to see it. Or live through it.
Shaun Carney is a regular columnist, an author and a former associate editor of The Age.
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