Bondi shooting: Penny Wong 'desperately sorry', says Labor ‘could have done more’
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has expressed sorrow over the Bondi terrorist attack and conceded more could have been done before Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades.
Asked if she would apologise to the Jewish community, Senator Wong said she was “desperately sorry for what has occurred in our country and what the Jewish community have experienced”.
“Sorrow isn’t political, sorrow is felt when we go to our places of worship, when we light a candle for those lost and for those grieving, when we hold our children close,” she told her hometown newspaper The Advertiser in Adelaide.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“These are moments where I think all of us have grieved.”
She would visit Bondi “when it’s appropriate” and had not attended any victims’ funerals because “funerals are intensely personal, and generally family-led”.
“I respect what families want and I respect their grief, which is overwhelming,” she said.
Ten people remain in Sydney hospitals recovering from injuries sustained in the December 14 attack.
Four remain in a critical condition, while the other six are stable, NSW Health said on Saturday.
The firebombing of a rabbi’s car in Melbourne on Christmas Day was an “unspeakable attack”, and Senator Wong said she condemned it, “particularly when the Australian Jewish community is mourning after the horrific events of Bondi”.
Melbourne police continue to search for a person of interest over the attack on a car bearing a Hanukkah sign.
On Friday, they released a picture of 47-year-old John Argento, who also goes by John Seckold.
Antisemitism is “unacceptable and … the government has acted”, Senator Wong said.
“Of course, always in politics and in life you always regret what more could have been done. I think we’ve made that clear. We acted but we have to do more and we are.”
Asked if Australia should tighten immigration, Senator Wong said Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had announced the strengthening of visa cancellation and visa refusal powers.
“I think that’s the right thing to do,” she said.
