CAMERON MILNER: Anti-Semitism royal commission won’t prevent another Bondi massacre
This hobbled inquiry is just what Anthony Albanese ordered — an exercise in political bum covering.
Virginia Bell’s Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion won’t stop another Bondi massacre and is simply an exercise in political cover for the Government.
And that’s by Anthony Albanese’s design. The Prime Minister has never wanted the hard questions asked.
A comprehensive royal commission, with wide terms of reference should have been called within days of the massacre.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Instead, the PM was brought kicking and screaming to the decision to set up this compromised commission. No doubt he will be delighted to promise a full delivery of all its inevitably underwhelming recommendations.
The commission has failed to engage the community the way the banking royal commission — which saw widespread reforms being delivered by banks even before the final report — did.
Justice Bell was hand picked by Mr Albanese. An accomplished jurist, but a known leftie who was unlikely to rock the boat.
At no stage, despite having the power to do so, has she extended her inquiries to the ministers and the Albanese Government on whose watch the massacre occurred.
Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for the compromised commission. We have a full account of the failures in Sharri Markson and Alex Ryvchin’s book, Bondi Terror.
It’s incredibly telling that ASIO boss Mike Burgess felt compelled to provide the authors a full account of the warnings the service gave the Albanese Government about the toxic rise of anti-Semitism in the lead up to the massacre.
The wider issue remains that Mr Albanese and his ministers didn’t just make one gross error prior to Bondi, but had consistently got it wrong since allowing depraved celebrations to go ahead in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 2023 atrocity, a failing that gave an open licence to anti-Semitism in Australia.
ASIO has said there’s evidence the Iranian Guard was behind recruiting those accused of an arson attack on the Adass synagogue.
Similarly, there are multiple community voices saying that the Albanese Government and its ministers have failed to do enough to counter anti-Semitism.
The Albanistas have also added insult to injury by creating a moral equivalence between Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, when only one community is having their places of worship attacked or religious festivals turned into mass killing events by radicalists.
Mr Albanese has said the phrase “neo nazis” hundreds of times more than the words “Islamic extremism”.
As former treasurer Josh Frydenberg eloquently put it, if Mr Albanese can’t even bring himself to describe the problem, how can we expect him to be capable of countering it?
By constantly trying to deflect from the actual threats and downplay the pleas from the Jewish community to help them feel safe again, Mr Albanese has contributed directly to a further breakdown in social cohesion in Australia.
His actions are acquiescence at best and at worst, contributory negligence. Instead of stepping up to fight anti-Semitism, radical Islam has been given the green light to ply its blind hatred in Australia.
Even after Bondi there’s evidence of the Government throwing bundles of taxpayer cash to hate preachers and their mosques year after year.
It shouldn’t be down to the media to expose the links between the pilot who tried to crash a FlyDubai plash into Tel Aviv airport and the Melbourne mosque where United Arab Emirates prosecutors allege his radicalisation began.
It’s not virtuous to cancel future grants when none should’ve been provided in the first place.
There’s been an embarrassment of riches shovelled out the door by the Albanese Government that has all too often found its way to radical Islamist hate preachers in Melbourne and Western Sydney.
The Albanese Government never seems willing to ask the uncomfortable questions upfront and is always in cover-up mode when the hate is discovered.
The tragedy now is we know that the royal commission was designed to underdeliver and to provide cover to ministers who failed in their duties to keep Australians safer.
We know because no minister has been called to give evidence and the hearings are now closed. No one from the Albanese Government was required to deal with the uncomfortable truth. And that was all by design.
For all of us seeking answers and an assurance that we won’t see another, massacre the royal commission won’t be any help.
What will help is NSW Premier Chris Minns’ new beefed up police patrols and the press continuing to hold the Albanese Government to account.
The royal commission is just Mr Albanese’s latest example of denial and deflection. Just another of the many actions of a PM who refuses to accept any responsibility when the high office of PM calls for full responsibility.
Instead, Australians are left with a useless report that makes us no safer. All by design of a Prime Minister who never wanted a royal commission and when forced, made sure it was never going to ask the tough questions.
