{"id":668588,"date":"2026-05-13T16:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668588\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:59:14","slug":"one-nation-senator-malcolm-roberts-again-fails-to-rule-out-bondi-beach-terror-attack-being-false-flag-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668588\/","title":{"rendered":"One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts again fails to rule out Bondi beach terror attack being \u2018false flag\u2019 | One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has caused further confusion in comments about the Bondi beach antisemitic terror attack<\/a>, clarifying that he thought it was an \u201cabsurd proposition\u201d to call the shooting a \u201cfalse flag\u201d but standing by his claim that he didn\u2019t have \u201cdata\u201d to rule it out.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Pauline Hanson\u2019s fellow senator from Queensland, was interviewed on a YouTube channel, with the clip posted earlier this month. At one point in the 23-minute clip, social media creator Lisa Jane Spencer asked \u201cdo you think that Bondi was a false flag?\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cfalse flag\u201d is a term for an event or attack which would later be blamed on someone other than the actual perpetrator. The term originated in military operations, but is also commonly used by conspiracy theorists to claim governments stage false events to create favourable circumstances for actions which would otherwise be unpopular.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts first responded \u201cwe haven\u2019t had the royal commission\u201d, before criticising prime minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s initial opposition to holding such an inquiry, going on to claim Labor had tolerated antisemitism and \u201cgiven fertile ground for Islamic terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what was the question? Oh that\u2019s right, false flag. I haven\u2019t got the evidence. I doubt whether it was a false flag,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

The interviewer responded: \u201cit was a bit sus [suspicious] afterwards when the laws came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts replied: \u201cI\u2019m going to challenge you on that, because while what you said is correct, there are so many things in the last 30 years, but especially with Covid, that they seem to arrange something and then the laws would come. I can acknowledge that point, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that\u2019s the case here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou asked me if I thought it was a false flag. If I make a statement, it\u2019s got to be backed by fact. I don\u2019t have the facts yet. I\u2019m not ruling it out. You notice that?\u201d Roberts said, before going on to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n

The 14 December shooting<\/a> at a Chanukah festival at Bondi beach left 15 people dead. Within hours, police and investigators said they were treating the incident as an act of terrorism, allegedly inspired by Islamic State. One of the alleged shooters<\/a>, Sajid Akram, was killed at the scene and his son, Naveed Akram, is before the courts, charged with dozens of offences<\/a> including 15 counts of murder. The federal government has convened a royal commission into the attack and broader issues of antisemitism in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"'They‘They came to kill us \u2013 we just weren’t there,’ Jewish woman tells royal commission \u2013 video<\/p>\n

At a press conference on Wednesday alongside Hanson and One Nation<\/a> colleagues in Canberra, Roberts was asked why he said he was \u201cnot ruling it out\u201d in the interview when asked about the attack being a false flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s an absurd proposition,\u201d Roberts replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond thing is that I reinforce the fact that I make decisions and statements based on data, and I don\u2019t have data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for clarification, Roberts urged media to \u201clook at it in context. The lady interviewing me was very naive and very young, very inexperienced. And I was just being gentle with her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Under sustained questioning from other journalists, Hanson stepped in to defend her colleague, claiming he\u2019d been taken out of context.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have shown our support for the Jewish community, for what\u2019s happened in this country. We\u2019ve been very supportive of the people at Bondi, against the Bondi attack. We\u2019ve come out quite strong on that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand the terminology that Senator Roberts used in that interview is not, is being taken completely out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts interjected to add: \u201cThe other thing is that the media is culpable for that woman\u2019s question, because the media has misled. People don\u2019t trust the media. They don\u2019t trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by another journalist if Roberts would confirm that he didn\u2019t believe there was a \u201cfalse flag\u201d attack, he said: \u201cthat\u2019s an absurd proposition\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hanson replied: \u201cof course there\u2019s no false flag\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will answer because I\u2019ve had this discussion with Senator Roberts, there is no false flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very, very strong on the floor of parliament to support the Jewish community. We pushed for this royal commission to antisemitism. And we\u2019ve been very strong on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allegra Spender, the member for Wentworth which includes Bondi, said on the ABC on Monday night that Roberts\u2019 comments on the YouTube interview were \u201cabsolutely appalling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been to funerals \u2026 it is completely out of line of what Asio, the security agencies and others know. It is an affront to the families who have lost their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has caused further confusion in comments about the Bondi beach antisemitic terror attack,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-668588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668588","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=668588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}