{"id":366137,"date":"2025-12-23T20:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366137\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T20:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:07:09","slug":"anthony-albanese-was-cruising-to-the-summer-break-now-his-leadership-faces-its-most-serious-test-bondi-beach-terror-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366137\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese was cruising to the summer break. Now his leadership faces its most serious test | Bondi beach terror attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine days after the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil, and amid a rising chorus of voices calling for a federal royal commission, Anthony Albanese<\/a> dug in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no royal commission called by the Howard government after Port Arthur,\u201d the prime minister told the media from Parliament House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no royal commission called by the Abbott government after the Lindt siege. We provided on both those occasions, as the opposition \u2026 we provided support for national unity at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

New South Wales, he pointed out, would have its own state-based royal commission, which his government would cooperate with. A review by Dennis Richardson into federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies was also due to be completed by April.<\/p>\n

After spending much of 2025 on a high, Labor is finishing the year under pressure over the shooting. Polling numbers in recent days show Albanese\u2019s popularity dropping to the lowest it has been since the May election and, at a commemoration vigil on Sunday, the prime minister was booed.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese has been criticised by prominent Jewish Australians, including former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, by many in the media, and by the Coalition over his rejection of calls for a national royal commission.<\/p>\n

Even the former high court chief justice Robert French criticised the government\u2019s decision to order a review of intelligence and policing arrangements<\/a> instead of a more powerful probe. Leading lawyers signed an open letter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Despite a landslide election victory little more than six months ago, Albanese goes into the summer break facing a complex political landscape. The path he chooses could make or break his second term in The Lodge.<\/p>\n

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said on Tuesday only a royal commission could provide the full explanation of the Bondi deaths that was urgently required.<\/p>\n

\"'No‘No royal commission after Port Arthur’: PM stands firm against Bondi shooting commission \u2013 video<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government should be the first calling for it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that we need to grapple with the government over this, plead for it, it\u2019s just deeply insulting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish leaders have said there was deep frustration with the government, even as they played down the booing at Sunday\u2019s vigil. They pointed to Albanese\u2019s failure to more quickly advance recommendations of the special envoy on antisemitism, Jillian Segal<\/a>, and moves by Labor to talk down the challenge.<\/p>\n

Political historian Chris Wallace says Bondi \u201chas profoundly damaged Anthony Albanese\u2019s prime ministership\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no getting round the fact that the government got the Segal report in July and five months later was cruising towards the summer break without a response, and with none on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is too slow \u2013 for Albanese, typically slow \u2013 and it\u2019s not as if there weren\u2019t strenuous pleas for an urgent response to the Segal report. It is a performance failure that can\u2019t be rationalised away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace, of Canberra University, said the prime minister\u2019s style is being challenged by other leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe terrorism brought two political leaders into sharp public focus, Albanese and New South Wales premier Chris Minns, and the comparison was unfavourable to Albanese. What has been seen by voters can\u2019t be unseen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crisis responses can make or break prime ministers. John Howard\u2019s determination to strengthen gun laws after the 1997 Port Arthur massacre is a key part of his political legacy, just like Scott Morrison\u2019s Hawaii holiday looms large in memories of the 2020 black summer bushfires.<\/p>\n

Tony Barry, a pollster for Redbridge, said it is too soon to say how the Bondi tragedy will play out politically but the main risk for Albanese is a prevailing view among voters that he is \u201cweak\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PMPM says he ‘regrets the politicisation’ of Bondi beach terror attack \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Barry says the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and members of her frontbench haven\u2019t been able to get the tone right<\/a> since the terror attack.<\/p>\n

He points to poll results published by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age showing nearly half of voters told Resolve they were unsatisfied by the government\u2019s response, even while their opinions of Ley also declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlbanese\u2019s biggest challenge is he still suffers from that weakness frame,\u201d Barry said. \u201cI think some of those Resolve polling numbers were pretty devastating, because strength is one of the leadership attributes voters look for particularly in times where national security is salient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry said it is likely national security and defence will be a more salient issue for voters when Redbridge conducts its first poll for 2026 in February.<\/p>\n

Wallace said voters would mark down the Liberals and Nationals too.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens would be more impressed by dignified Coalition MPs supporting the government in the serious business of finding and fixing the system\u2019s gaps, errors, oversights and processes that failed to stop this terrorism before it happened than by shouty accusations against the prime minister,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ley, on Tuesday, doubled down on her criticisms of Albanese and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, whom she accused of not having \u201cshed a single tear\u201d over the attack at an extraordinary press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n

She told Sunrise: \u201cI make no apology for my passion on that occasion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese attends the \u2018Light Over Darkness\u2019 vigil in Sydney on Sunday 21 December. Photograph: Hollie Adams\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The prime minister, who has so far tried to avoid personal attacks, said on Tuesday that he \u201cregrets\u201d the politicisation of the attack and would continue to call for unity.<\/p>\n

Some Labor MPs are frustrated too. Mike Freelander and Ed Husic joined calls for a royal commission this week, while others said Albanese had not spent enough time with the Jewish community and key stakeholders over the past two years. One Labor MP said Minns had done this effectively.<\/p>\n

The MP agreed the government should have called a royal commission and said they were \u201cpretty pissed off\u201d it had not. \u201cIt is our failure,\u201d they said. \u201cIt happened on our watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, quietly, some Labor MPs have shared messages of support sent from constituents, out of view of the cameras. \u201cIt\u2019s not his fault,\u201d one told their local member this week, expressing disgust at politicisation of the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall John Howard being blamed for Port Arthur or Tony Abbott for [the] Lindt Cafe, yet apparently when two madmen kill 15 people, it\u2019s Albo\u2019s fault,\u201d another message seen by Guardian Australia said.<\/p>\n

Dean Sherr, a former Albanese adviser and consultant, said the Jewish community has felt increasingly isolated as antisemitism has increased and wants to see \u201cleaders are firmly in their corner\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bondi attack has made all these feelings of isolation and insecurity so much worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community is obviously looking for action and responsibility and accountability, but they\u2019re also looking to feel that leaders are firmly in their corner and that they understand what they\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherr warned there was no quick fix<\/a> for rebuilding trust.<\/p>\n

A member of Melbourne\u2019s Jewish community, he also acknowledged that relations with Labor had experienced some strain before 7 October 2023, dating back to the reversal of the recognition of West Jerusalem in October 2022, a decision which had been made on a Jewish holiday.<\/p>\n

This week, Albanese has urged \u201curgency and unity, not division and delay\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine days after the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil, and amid a rising chorus of voices calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-366137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}