Labor luminaries are privately urging the prime minister to back down. Credit: Bloomberg
Albanese has backed a NSW royal commission announced by Premier Chris Minns, alongside a sweeping package of federal measures including the largest firearms buyback since 1996, tougher gun laws, new hate crime provisions and a review of intelligence and law enforcement agencies led by former ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson.
But the letter’s authors say the NSW inquiry, while welcome, is inherently limited.
“We commend NSW Premier Chris Minns for calling a NSW Royal Commission but such a commission cannot compel institutions and individuals beyond its jurisdiction to give evidence,” they write, arguing only a Commonwealth inquiry could force federal agencies and social media companies to provide evidence and offer legal protections for whistleblowers.
The signatories call for terms of reference broad enough to examine “systemic, legal, institutional, inter-jurisdictional and educational issues”, including the role of online radicalisation, hate speech and incitement, and the effectiveness of intelligence-sharing between state and federal agencies.
Former Victorian Labor deputy premier James Merlino was among a group of business figures to call for a royal commission last week, along with former cabinet colleague Phillip Daladakis, who is of Jewish heritage.
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The letter also reflects on the depth of anger and fear within parts of the Jewish communities in Australia since the attack. It describes Jewish Australians being forced to send children to schools guarded by armed security, to pray behind blast-resistant walls and to conceal their identity in public to remain safe.
“At stake is the health of our democracy and our national security,” the letter says. “This includes the very values and institutions that have helped create a safe, harmonious and multicultural Australia.”
Mike Kelly, a former defence materiel minister and Eden-Monaro MP and now a co-convenor of the party’s Friends of Israel group, said the Bondi attack took place within a broader narrative of rising antisemitism, arguing that violence did not emerge in isolation but from an environment in which hatred has been allowed to grow unchecked.
“There’s an entire ecosystem that’s associated with the terror attack,” Kelly said. “That atrocity doesn’t come out of the blue. There are a whole lot of questions to be asked, very broadly that the narrow cast terms of reference that have been given to Dennis Richardson won’t address,” he said.
Kelly said Labor members would be foolish to think it is a partisan political call for a national inquiry.
“This is not just an issue of partisan politics, although I would like to see the Coalition be more approachable and offer support to deal with this situation, as much as to highlight where there’s been deficiencies,” he said.
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