LATIKA M BOURKE: Heckled and booed, how much longer does Anthony Albanese want to delay the inevitable?

The boos and cheers said it all.

Two Labor men attended the same rally. One was hailed, applauded, cheered and given a standing ovation.

That was NSW Premier Chris Minns, who has responded with compassion, grace, humility and strength and crucially, action since two gunmen shot dead 15 people at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration.

Mr Minns has vowed to toughen the definition of hate speech, including copying the British-Bondi-inspired move to outlaw the chant: “Globalise the Intifada”, recalled Parliament for Monday to discuss gun laws and has pledged a state Royal Commission.

With conviction and clarity, he has spoken about the slippery slope of antisemitism that has made its disingenuous and murderous journey from words to attacks on Jewish buildings to violence and death.

He was warmly praised by NSW Liberal Leader Kellie Sloane, who was also hailed at the service. Ms Sloane was a witness and first responder at the scene last week. She recounted being told by a lifesaver to grab the bandages. When she asked what to do with them, she was instructed to “plug the holes.”

She too was given a standing ovation. Between Mr Minns and Ms Sloane, there is no partisanship, just unity. The kind Mr Albanese has been pleading for, if not demanding. But unity cannot be commanded, conjured or summoned; it is the by-product of leadership and earnt by action.

It is why the community has rallied around Mr Minns, who by his own actions, is also playing catch-up on efforts to stamp out antisemitic actions and behaviours that have metastasised across Australia.

By contrast, the national Labor Leader, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, was booed, jeered and told by some hecklers he wasn’t welcome at Sunday night’s National Day of Reflection Service.

He has only himself to blame. Having presided over two years of growing antisemitism and by his own belated admission, not done enough to check it, he has destroyed federal Labor’s relationship with the Jewish community, which wants answers and action for the slaughter at Bondi, including of 15 souls, including a Holocaust survivor and ten-year-old Matilda.

Mr Albanese initially reached for some Howard cosplay, promising a toughening of gun laws. The measure was slammed by John Howard, whose legacy is defined by his bolshie approach to gun reform after the Port Arthur massacre.

After this response was panned as a diversion tactic, Mr Albanese shifted gear and announced a range of specific antisemitism measures, which were welcomed but also condemned as too little too late.

Nevertheless, it appeared he had learnt his lesson. But his decision on Sunday to announce a review of the intelligence bodies, rather than a total Commonwealth Royal Commission, leaves him on the back foot, and under renewed attack again.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess welcomed the review and immediately said he would own any mistakes if they were uncovered.

“And we will learn from them. As I have said many times, ASIO is not all-seeing and all-knowing,” Mr Burgess said in a statement.

“Tragically, in this case we did not know about the attack before it happened. That is a matter of grave regret for me and my officers. It weighs on us heavily.

“But that does not necessarily mean there was an intelligence failure or that my officers made mistakes.”

Asking questions of the intelligence community as to how father-and-son gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram escaped the agencies’ scrutiny, despite Naveed coming to the attention of ASIO in 2019 through his association with a Sydney-based Islamic State cell, is valid. ISIS flags were found in their car. Further, the pair travelled to the Philippines prior to carrying out their attack.

Mr Burgess does not fear scrutiny and his response hit all the right notes. Australians are not unkind nor unforgiving people. Where they see course correction, they are the first to applaud it and forgive. It is why former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie made such an art form in saying sorry whenever he could.

It is exactly the sort of statement Mr Albanese should have given. The strongest show of leadership he could offer right now is an all-out inquiry, demonstrating that he too cares about the outcome, even if mistakes are exposed.

Instead, the Prime Minister has shied away from calling a Royal Commission, saying he supports one at the New South Wales level.

David Ossip from the NSW Board of Deputies savaged the Prime Minister at the Reflection Day ceremony.

“It cannot be disputed that we need a royal commission which goes beyond New South Wales to get to the bottom of how this catastrophe took place. And that must include the Commonwealth,” he said.

He noted that Premier Minns had “not missed a funeral, a synagogue service or an opportunity to be with the Jewish community this week.”

Albanese has not attended the funerals, because it has been made clear he would not be welcome. Despite offering, Mr Albanese did not speak at the memorial on Sunday.

Organisers feared he would be booed so heavily, the spectacle would overshadow the entire event, and the heartfelt tribute to the victims and survivors of the Hanukkah attack.

The Prime Minister entered and left the service flanked by a heavy security detail and his two most supportive Cabinet colleagues, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Defence Minister Richard Marles, as well as his new wife Jodie Haydon. He was booed again as he departed.

Shielded, mute and unwanted, it was an inescapable visual analogy for his breakdown in his relationship with the Jewish community.

In the hours after the Bondi attack, Mr Albanese vowed to “eradicate antisemitism.” It was a bold statement from a Prime Minister whose governing style is cautious, incremental, and managerial. And it was especially eye-catching, given that antisemitism is as ancient an ideology as the Jewish people themselves.

In 1987, one of Mr Albanese’s idols, Labor’s longest-serving prime minister Bob Hawke said that no child would be living in poverty by 1990. Yet the Valuing Children Initiative reported last year that nearly 823,000 children and 1.85 million households were living under the poverty line in 2022. Grandiose claims do not equal outcomes, however well-intentioned.

For Mr Albanese is difficult to see marry his desire to eradicate antisemitism without launching widespread inquiry and national conversation that a Federal royal commission would kickstart. When he won government in 2022 he had a Royal Commission into Robodebt ready to go in less than three months.

Surely the horror of Jews being hunted and gunned down at a beach qualifies for the same response? And if not, why not?

If the Federal government does end having to cave to the pressure, Mr Albanese will have been dragged kicking and screaming to an inevitable outcome. He will get none of the credit that would have come with showing courage early. And it will only foment the comparison between his inertia and the standard his NSW colleague Mr Minns is boldly setting.