Chris Bowen has accused Sussan Ley of \u201cdisgusting\u201d conduct and politicising the Bondi antisemitic shooting, claiming the Coalition was putting partisan point-scoring over national unity in the wake of Australia\u2019s worst terror attack.<\/p>\n
Ley, whose Coalition has launched increasingly extraordinary political criticism blaming the government<\/a> for the terror attack, defended her personal sledge on the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, for not having \u201cshed a single tear\u201d about the shooting.<\/p>\n Anthony Albanese accused the Coalition of seeking \u201cpolitical product differentiation\u201d in their response to the attack. Bowen said the opposition leader was \u201cnot the arbiter of grief\u201d and did not get to dictate how other people mourned.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that was a disgusting element of an increasingly partisan pile-on in the wake of a national crisis,\u201d Labor\u2019s energy minister told the ABC.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralia has in the past come together at moments like this, whether it be the Lindt cafe or Port Arthur, and oppositions have chosen not to make political points. This opposition is trying a different path.\u201d<\/p>\n Ley on Tuesday said she was unashamed of her criticism of Wong<\/a>. That came during a press conference on Monday in which the shadow minister Bridget McKenzie \u2013 without evidence \u2013 alleged that Labor\u2019s recognition of a Palestinian state, and Wong\u2019s failure to visit certain sites of Hamas\u2019s 7 October massacre in Israel, had \u201cbrought this upon us\u201d.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Wong on Monday had strongly condemned antisemitism and the Bondi<\/a> attack, and called on politicians \u201cto turn the temperature down\u201d in Australia\u2019s national debate. Ley, raising her voice and slamming her hand on a lectern, harshly criticised Wong for not attending funerals of the shooting victims or visiting the Bondi memorial site.<\/p>\n \u201cI make no apology for my passion on that occasion and my ongoing passion for Australians, for Jewish Australians and for this hideous act of terrorism,\u201d Ley told Channel Nine\u2019s Today on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been down there. The prime minister has hardly been there. Penny Wong<\/a> has not been there at all. Her calls to take the temperature down were totally inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese visited Bondi beach the day after the attack and attended the memorial there on the one-week anniversary. On Tuesday he said: \u201cI certainly do regret the politicisation of this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a time where the nation needs to come together in unity and with that sense of purpose, this is not a time for people to look for political product differentiation for the sake of it. And I\u2019ll continue to argue for unity,\u201d he told a press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what happens at a time of national crisis and mourning. That is what national leaders do. That is what has happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Ley has noted in numerous media appearances on Monday and Tuesday that Albanese received \u201cjeers\u201d at the Bondi beach vigil<\/a>. On Channel Seven\u2019s Sunrise, she again demanded a federal royal commission, suggesting twice that the government was \u201chiding\u201d by not calling one.<\/p>\n \u201cWere there warnings that they didn\u2019t heed?\u201d she said. \u201cWe have this growing list of judges, of top silks, of Sir Peter Cosgrove this morning, of people across this country who know that this is the next important step that this government needs to take. My question is, why not? Why not, prime minister?\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese noted the Coalition<\/a> governments in 1996 and 2014 did not call for royal commissions after the Port Arthur massacre and Lindt cafe terror siege, standing by his decision to not request such an inquiry so far.<\/p>\n Labor sources have been privately furious at the Coalition\u2019s politicising of the Bondi attack, contrasting the opposition\u2019s abandonment of any national united bipartisan approach to how oppositions of the past have supported governments of the day through previous terror attacks, the Covid pandemic and the Port Arthur massacre. The former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, last week claimed Albanese was personally responsible for the 15 deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n In responding to attacks that Labor had been slow to act on antisemitism, government sources noted that the Coalition had voted against Labor\u2019s anti-doxxing legislation in November 2024, and had not taken stronger action on banning Nazi symbols during its time in government.<\/p>\n That frustration boiled over in public on Tuesday when Bowen claimed Ley\u2019s Coalition had prioritised partisan politics, especially in the attack on Wong.<\/p>\n \u201cSussan Ley is not the arbiter of grief or mourning, and she does not get to decide how people express that mourning and that grief \u2026 it said more about Sussan Ley<\/a> than it does about Penny Wong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSussan Ley, I think, needs to reflect on her behaviour yesterday. It was pretty disgusting. And I think as it shows, that she is choosing to make political points out of an issue and a personal attack on someone like Penny Wong, I think, will jar pretty badly with Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n