Editorial: Bondi report a first look at how we failed Jewish community

The first official report of the royal commission set up after the Bondi massacre has already pinpointed concerning issues.

The interim report handed down on Thursday by royal commissioner Virginia Bell is the first step in the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

And yet, along with 14 recommendations, it contains damning insights into the dangers the Jewish community faced before the December attack.

The probe may already have found enough to indicate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was suspicious and wary of what might be uncovered when he initially resisted a royal commission.

Mr Albanese had insisted an examination of police and intelligence agencies by former top national security boss Dennis Richardson was enough, before he caved in to calls for a wider inquiry.

Ms Bell found that there were “some respects in which counter-terrorism capability at Commonwealth and State levels might be improved”.

And that the level of resources specifically for counter-terrorism in national security agencies fell over the past five years, despite their overall budgets increasing.

Among recommendation was that NSW Police procedures used during Operation Jewish High Holy Days be applied to other high-risk public Jewish festivals and events.

It said an updated and nationally consistent National Firearms Agreement and National Gun Buyback scheme should be priorities, and called for a review of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Teams.

The recommendations are worthy. But it is in the nitty gritty of the report that the sharp evidence emerges.

That six days before the attack where 15 people were slain, the Community Security Group — a Jewish self-protection organisation — told the NSW Police a terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish Community was likely and asked for protection.

Emails published in the report showed one unnamed inspector told a subordinate to “take a car crew or two with you” to Bondi.

The response smacked of a public relations exercise. “Your presence will ensure the community feel safe,” the officer wrote.

It is hard to think the response was anything but casually off-handed. And potentially reflective of a wider lack of urgency.

The report also noted that “ASIO publicly and repeatedly drew attention to the heightened risk of a terrorist attack and to an environment of ‘disturbing escalation’ of antisemitic incidents”.

It was necessary to investigate how ASIO and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies acted on the assessment, the report said.

We already knew the Jewish community had repeatedly expressed its fears and that they were well-founded. And that as a society we failed.

But we need to find out how it happened. And why. The interim report has given us a start. The commission is set to delve deeper in the weeks ahead after its first hearings begin on Monday.

Ms Bell’s report says the Iran war “is likely to have increased the risk of attacks directed at the Australian Jewish community”.

So we have another warning.

Are we doing all we can to act on it?

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore