Today the former Chief Justice of the High Court Robert French, former head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) Nick Warner, former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, former Federal Labor minister Mike Kelly & Labor Senator Nova Peris, 100 Senior Counsel and current Labor MPs Mike Friedlander and Ed Husic joined the Jewish community and the Coalition in a growing chorus of legal, political, security and civil leaders calling for an urgent Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi massacre.  I urge the Prime Minister to heed this message and announce a Royal Commission now.  It's illogical for the Prime Minister to say "we want urgency and unity, not division and delay" in dismissing a Royal Commission.  Prime Minister you have been delaying taking strong action for the last two and half years. If you want to use alliteration then what we want is accountability and action and not a Prime Minister who is in denial but one who shares our despair. Mr French's words today were powerful and pertinent. He described what needs to be done as a "moral imperative" saying "there is no requirement for governments to put on hold their responses to the (Bondi) attack pending the provision of reports by the Royal Commission. The events at Bondi Beach require a whole of Australia response which transcends politics and which by its very independence generates a powerful force for change." Mr Warner said "at the heart of the horror and tragedy of Bondi lies antisemitism, allowed to fester and grow through years of inaction. This must be addressed and acted on, and a carefully mandated Royal Commission would play an important role." In the days since Australia's deadliest ever terrorist attack, we have heard too many excuses from our Prime Minister and his senior Ministers. We have been told 'you can't legislate against hate'; we have been told 'anti-semitism didn't begin in 2022'; we have been told that it comes to the threat  'we are dealing with a circle of two'; we have been told the priority is a gun buy back not the radicalism in our midst; and now we are told we can't have a Royal Commission because it will lead to 'delays' in the response. Each excuse only compounds the pain of the last week and underscores the need for the Government to take urgent, unprecedented and strong action to secure the safety of all Australians.

Last night’s terrorist attack on families celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all those killed and injured. After yesterday Australia will never be the same. Every Australian has been attacked by this evil and hateful act of violence. It was all too predictable and so many of us said so. The Director General of our national security and intelligence agency ASIO even rang the alarm bell himself warning that the dangerous rise in antisemitism was his ‘number one priority’ in terms of threats to life. Why didn’t our leaders listen and why didn’t they act? The massacre we have seen at one of our nations most inconic landmarks is the culmination of an unprecedented failure of leadership to heed the warning signs that were so obvious to every Australian who opened their eyes. From the disgraceful scenes on the steps of the Opera House just hours after Hamas’s attack on October 7 to the firebombing of synagogues and child care centres, the doxxing of Jewish artists, harassment of jewish students and daily violent protests on our streets, the last two years has seen a tsunami of hate that has left the local jewish community feeling abandoned and alone. In response we got little more than hollow words from our leaders as they stood by and watched the flames of hate burn. The Prime Minister’s public pledge after October 7 that he would not let antisemitism ‘find so much as a foothold here’ in Australia, is now fully exposed for the failure it has been. The fact is Australia is no longer safe for Jews. Everything must now change from here. Everything must be on the table. The law must be enforced. Those who spew hate must no longer be tolerated. We cannot as a country continue as we have done. Our leaders must now finally stand up, accept responsibility for what has happened on their watch and close this shameful chapter in our nation’s history. Every Australian must demand nothing less.