Anthony Albanese continues to refuse calls for royal commission into Bondi terror attack

Anthony Albanese has tripled down on his continued refusal to call a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack, saying it would not deliver answers fast enough.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Tuesday vowed to call out the Prime Minister every day until he agreed to an inquiry, which she said was needed to “shine a light into all of the dark corners of civil society and across this country”.

Instead, Mr Albanese has called for a review of the country’s Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation boss Dennis Richardson, with the findings set to be delivered in April.

Asked about his resistance to a Royal Commission after emerging from a National Security Committee meeting in Canberra, Mr Albanese noted “there was no Royal Commission called by the Howard Government after Port Arthur”.

“There was no Royal Commission called by the Abbott Government after the Lindt Siege,” he said.

“We provided on both those occasions as the Opposition, and I was a part of that Opposition, we provided support for national unity at that time.

“And we have now, New South Wales has said that they’re going to have a Royal Commission. We’ve said we’ll cooperate with that and we certainly will. And the Richardson Review will be completed by April.”

Mr Albanese said given the scope of the Coalition’s proposal for Royal Commission into the terror attack and anti-Semitism, it would not report back until “many years to come”.

“There hasn’t been a Royal Commission held recently that has not had an extension of time,” he said.

“We know who the perpetrators are here. One of them is dead and one of them has now been transferred to Long Bay jail.

“We know what the motivation is, that they are motivated by the evil ideology of ISIS and a perversion of Islam.

“We are continuing to investigate whether any other connections can be made and the amount of work that has been done by police and security agencies in a relatively short period of time is quite extraordinary.”

Ms Ley said it was “feasible” for Mr Albanese to call a Royal Commission “today”.

“There are a growing list of key eminent Australians who are calling for exactly that,” Ms Ley told Today.

“This is so important for the community, not just at Bondi, not just Jewish Australians, but Australians across the country.

“It’s taken the Prime Minister eight days to say the word ‘sorry’. If it takes him another eight days to call this Royal Commission, then that would be a shame. But he can indeed call it today, and Australians deserve no less.”

She earlier said, “if the worst terrorist attack in Australia is not a good reason to call a Royal Commission, then I know that the Coalition, me and my team, we’re going to call that out every single day because it’s not good enough.”

Acting WA Premier Rita Saffioti refused to throw her support behind a Federal Royal Commission, saying she supports the one that NSW will hold.

“I think that will probably make sure it covers all the key areas,” she said.

On Tuesday Mr Albanese also hit back at Ms Ley’s claims he had not spoken to her since the night of the attack, in which 15 innocent people were killed.

“I called her on the Sunday night. I spoke to her again on the Monday morning. I think people will judge whether Sussan Ley and others have been engaging in bipartisanship or not since then,” he said.

On Monday, Ms Ley accused Foreign Minister Penny Wong of failing to attend funerals or memorials in the wake of the terror attack, saying she had not seen her “shed a single tear”.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday said the comment was a “disgusting element of an increasingly partisan pile-on in the wake of a national crisis”.

“Australia has in the past come together at moments like this, whether it be the Lindt Cafe or Port Arthur, and Oppositions have chosen not to make political points,” he said.

“This Opposition has chosen a different path and Sussan Ley is not the arbiter of grief or mourning and she does not get to decide how people express that mourning and that grief and I thought, as I said, it said more about Sussan Ley than it does about Penny Wong.”