Bondi terror attack: Former WA Labor Senator Mark Bishop lashes Anthony Albanese in royal commission call

Former WA Labor Senator Mark Bishop says he fears a second attack on Jewish Australians and has backed a royal commission into Bondi, saying it is the only way forward to address “out of control” antisemitism.

But he said that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was digging in in opposing such an inquiry, because it would affect Muslim votes in the Western Sydney electorates of cabinet ministers Tony Burke, Chris Bowen and Jason Clare.

Mr Bishop also said that Labor MPs were maintaining their silence on the issue out of fear of revenge from the Prime Minister, who responded to internal criticism in an uncompromising way similar to that of former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

In a rare interview after his political retirement, Mr Bishop told The Nightly that his move from Perth to Melbourne had opened his eyes to the growth of anti-Semitism in the community.

“I think a royal commission is now the appropriate solution and the only way to go forward,” he said.

“I’ve been living in Melbourne for the last seven or eight years — we shifted over here from Perth — and I’ve seen the degree of anti-Semitism grow in the community. It’s a common discussion point.

“And now with this business up in New South Wales, it appears to be out of control. And I think unless the Australian community as a whole discusses it, works out an appropriate solution and addresses it, it won’t be covered in the future.”

He expressed fears of a second attack without a royal commission.

“I’m fearful that there will be another similar incident,” he said.

“I don’t suggest there’s any grand conspiracy theory on the part of particular Islamic groups or Muslim groups in Sydney or Melbourne. The press indicates that it’s a one-off event by a couple of people who have become deranged, but if it can happen once, it can happen twice.

“And the last thing we need is another incident where multiple people are being gunned down for the sin of attending synagogue service.”

The party elder entered the federal parliament as a Senator for Western Australia in 1996, the same year as Mr Albanese.

He was a member of the Labor caucus until 2014 when he retired, after the Rudd and Gillard governments lost power to the Coalition.

Mr Albanese has repeatedly refused to call a Royal Commission into the Bondi attack. He has commissioned a separate inquiry to be headed by former spy boss Dennis Richardson to look into any intelligence failures.

But 17 families related to the victims of the December 14 attack say that does not go far enough and want a broader inquiry into anti-Semitism.

They have been backed by more than 100 business leaders and 70 sporting champions, including Olympian Dawn Fraser who told the Prime Minister on the weekend to get off his “high horse” and call a royal commission.

“And to you, Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, Penny Wong, come down off your high horse and stop trying to run for cover,” Fraser said at Bondi on Sunday.

“If the Jewish community is calling for a royal commission, then do the right thing by this community that has suffered enough. This is not about the spineless and weak; it’s about doing the right thing.

“In the 88 years of my life, living, loving, and representing this truly great country, I have never seen so much hate and division, and this breaks my heart.

“This is not a gun problem, this is not a one-off problem, this is an anti-Semitism problem and it has been building and building, and our leaders have sat on their hands too scared to say anything or do anything because, heaven forbid, they might be called racists.”

Labor claims calls for a royal commission are political and the Prime Minister is pleading for unity. His opposition is supported in the parliament by only the Greens party.

An opposition spokesman said the Coalition could copy Labor’s tactics in opposition and use parliamentary procedures to force a royal commission on the Prime Minister.

“The Coalition will use all options at our disposal through the Australian Parliament to push Anthony Albanese, and the Labor Party, to listen to victims’ families and call a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi Attack and Antisemitism,” the spokesman said.

Mr Bishop said the Prime Minister’s refusal to hold an inquiry was driven by politics and Muslim votes.

“It is inextricably linked to the future of particular Labor Party members and cabinet ministers in the federal government who have Islamic communities,” he said.

“I mean the obvious candidates (Home Affairs Minister Tony) Burke, (Climate Change Minister Chris) Bowen, (Education Minister Jason) Clare and to a lesser extent (Attorney-General) Michelle Rowland and a couple of others, but principally, those three who have significant and growing Islamic groups within their own electorates.

“They are fearful of losing their support for a whole range of different reasons, not necessarily related to the mere politics of this whole discussion. I think that is the primary driving factor on the part of the Prime Minister.

Mr Bishop is one of just a handful of Labor party figures to break ranks with Mr Albanese in public. Just two backbenchers have endorsed a royal commission and former prime ministers and leaders including Julia Gillard, Paul Keating, Kim Beazley, have not stated positions. Mr Rudd is employed by the government as Ambassador to the United States.

Privately, many Labor MPs back a royal commission but have not said so publicly. Asked why Labor MPs were so quiet, Mr Bishop said they feared Mr Albanese going “Dictator Dan” on them and killing their careers.

“Oh, I think Labor MPs almost to a point are silent because Albanese has learnt from (former Victorian Labor Premier Daniel) Andrews. If you crossed Andrews in any way, you were just put in coventry and you remained there for the entirety of your career whilst he was the leader or the Premier, and I think Albanese would do the same without a thought,” he said.

“So if you openly have a different view publicly to the government and you express it, then your career is done. And people don’t go into politics to spend 10 years in nowhere land.”

Liberal MP Anderew Hastie, who is widely viewed as a potential leader of the Coalition, likened Mr Albanese’s “performative authority” to Tolstoy’s fictional Governor of Moscow Count Rostopchin in the epic War and Peace.

“As Tolstoy writes ‘…This man had no idea what was happening. He just wanted to be seen doing something,’” Mr Hastie wrote in an essay on his Substack over the weekend.

“(The Prime Minister) was so overwhelmed that he was unable to express anger, resolve or a sense of direction in his first press conference after the attack.

“This is a moment to turn to the leadership virtues of Kutuzov or even Denisov — being moved to sob or even howl with tears at the loss of life. Instead, our nation’s leader has stayed in the cold, rational world of focus-group tested policies.

“Rather than looking for deep and wide-ranging counsel, which might be found in a royal commission, our political leadership – so far – is resorting to administrative reviews when the moment demands a much more visceral, sweeping and forensic response.”