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February 21, 2026 \u2014 4:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called for a sharp focus on religious extremism when the royal commission on antisemitism starts on Tuesday, as Opposition Leader Angus Taylor seeks to shift the spotlight back to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s handling of the Bondi massacre.<\/p>\n After weeks of inflammatory political debate on immigration and attitudes within the Australian Muslim community, following the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil, Taylor told this masthead that \u201cserious questions need to be answered about warnings, preparedness and response, and why the Albanese government failed to act sooner\u201d.<\/p>\n The former High Court justice running the probe, commissioner Virginia Bell, has in recent weeks met Jewish community leaders and other interested parties before an inquiry that Albanese was initially reluctant to establish after the Bondi massacre in which 15 people were killed.<\/p>\n Major Jewish community groups, including Frydenberg\u2019s Dor Foundation, have come together ahead of the royal commission to co-ordinate on legal strategy.<\/p>\n Bell and the leading lawyer who will question witnesses, Richard Lancaster, SC, will give their opening remarks on Tuesday morning as they race to deliver a final report by the time of the first anniversary of the December 14 attack.<\/p>\n Frydenberg, the former Liberal member for Kooyong who gave an impassioned speech advocating for a royal commission at a Bondi memorial in the days after the massacre, said there was lots of goodwill in the community that the inquiry would \u201cpave a path to a better Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe need to rebuild a culture of tolerance in our country with a special focus on the extremists in our midst who want to hurt and do harm to their fellow Australians,\u201d he told this masthead, saying the process would help prevent another terror attack like Bondi.<\/p>\n \u201c[Extremists] can no longer be tolerated if we are going to turn a new page and create a safer and secure Australia for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bondi killings, one of the deadliest attacks on Jews outside Israel in modern history, triggered a national conversation about antisemitism and extremism.<\/p>\n Speaking on this masthead\u2019s Inside Politics podcast earlier this month, Albanese took a swipe at Frydenberg, who had expressed early concern about Bell\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n Albanese said he did not regret the delay in calling a royal commission and repeated the claim that he was preparing to do so some time before he announced it, even though he was publicly arguing against it at the same time he claimed to be considering it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an attempt to secure political advantage perceived within 24 hours, and that, to me, is entirely inappropriate,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n \u201cI draw a big distinction between the engagement of some political figures and the response of the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n Support for populist right-wing party One Nation was rising before the attack, but polling for Pauline Hanson\u2019s outfit overtook the Coalition in the weeks after it.<\/p>\n The rise of the Queensland senator was tested last week as she received widespread condemnation for saying there were no \u201cgood\u201d Muslims. Hanson\u2019s top recruit, former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, showed signs of pressure trying to defend Hanson while not endorsing her inflammatory views.<\/p>\n Albanese called the comments \u201cdisgraceful\u201d. Taylor responded to Hanson\u2019s comments for the first time on Friday, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t agree with Pauline Hanson in what she said.\u201d<\/p>\n At a press conference at Melbourne\u2019s burnt-out Adass Synagogue, which became a symbol of the spate of attacks on Jewish sites over the past two years, Taylor declined to use strong language to criticise Hanson, but distanced himself from her comments.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I believe in is that people who don\u2019t adopt and believe in our core values shouldn\u2019t come to our shores, whatever their race or religion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Taylor has also been focused on Labor\u2019s management of the potential return of \u201cISIS brides\u201d who travelled to Syria to join the same movement that allegedly inspired the Bondi attack. <\/p>\n The true extent of Hanson\u2019s support faces real-life tests in South Australian and Victorian elections this year, as well as a federal byelection in Sussan Ley\u2019s seat of Farrer.<\/p>\n On Friday afternoon, the Australian Federal Police said it had \u201creceived reports of crime\u201d in relation to Hanson\u2019s comments. Hanson was found guilty of racially vilifying Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim woman born in Pakistan, in 2024 when she said Faruqi should \u201cpiss off back to Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n The spike in Hanson\u2019s polling has coincided with a surge in social media viewership of her content. Data provided by One Nation showed that in the 28 days to February 18, Hanson\u2019s videos on Facebook and Instagram had been viewed 47 million times. The data from Meta showed viewers aged under 45 were mainly men, and mainly women for those 65 or older.<\/p>\n The royal commission will re-enliven scrutiny on the Albanese government and its intelligence agencies, which will be questioned about their knowledge of the alleged shooters before the December attack, as well as NSW agencies including police whose presence was small at the Hanukkah event.<\/p>\n A question for Bell will be how much time and investigatory capacity she puts into exploring antisemitism in the media, universities and cultural institutions, where those with right- and left-wing views disagree on the nature of the problem.<\/p>\n Whether the pro-Palestine protest movement created a permissive environment for antisemitism is likely to be a talking point, as is the question of whether Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and escalating violence in the West Bank contributed to the rise in antisemitism.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Opposition](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5cd99f89495afeee638fc6558c48286d6ad8c52b.jpeg\")
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor (right) during a visit to the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Friday.Joe Armao<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/41e0977e67c72bf786b8c4f7189d898f5a078349.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767789310_197_119281a2607761852c4e3d0bae521b8cb3f98cb4.png\")
Paul Sakkal<\/a> is chief political correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and has won Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 21, 2026 \u2014 4:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-494469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}