EDITORIAL: Albanese’s royal commission refusal motivated by self interest

The Government’s flimsy justifications for its refusal to hold a Federal royal commission into the events of December 14 and the socio-political environment which preceded it are growing ever more incredulous and insulting the victims of their Bondi massacre and their grieving families.

On Monday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke plumbed new depths of absurdity.

The Government would not call a Federal royal commission because to do so would “provide a public platform for some of the worst statements and worst voices, to effectively relive some of the worst examples of anti-Semitism over the last two years”, he said.

It was a justification that we hadn’t heard before, likely because they’d just come up with it.

Other excuses offered up include that it would take too long to report back, that it would be divisive, and that royal commissions weren’t called in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre or the Lindt cafe siege.

All are nonsense.

The real reason Anthony Albanese won’t call a royal commission into this catastrophe is that he knows that in effect it would be an inquiry into his Government’s mishandling of the anti-Semitism crisis and his failure to protect Australians from religious zealots intent on murder.

So, in the interest of self-protection, he continues to resist the cacophony of calls for a royal commission, coming from a diverse chorus of voices including former High Court judge Robert French, ex governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove, Queensland’s former Labor premier Peter Beattie, as well as the families of the victims themselves.

In doing so he further alienates the very minority he claims to want to protect.

It is a repeat of the Voice debacle. Mr Albanese claimed to want to deliver for Indigenous Australians. But, he lacked both the political will and the nous to follow through on his rhetoric and broke their hearts instead.

Part of Mr Albanese’s justification for refusing to call a royal commission is that he has already tasked former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson with investigating the actions of Australia’s Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies leading up to the attack which left 15 people dead.

There is no doubt that Mr Richardson will deliver a diligent and thoughtful report within the parameters given to him.

But that misses the point.

This is another cry for help from Australia’s Jewish community. They feel they have been abandoned by their Government; that their safety was compromised in the pursuit of political point-scoring.

By refusing to heed their calls, Mr Albanese is failing them all over again, as his Government has done for two years. This is a Government that has allowed the entire Jewish community in Australia to be demonised and marginalised. They asked for help politely and were ignored.

Even now, after the horror of December 14, they are still being treated as an irritation by this Government which refuses to properly deal with the mainstreaming of radical Islamic thought which has arrived in our suburbs by way of ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah.

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