LATIKA M BOURKE: The Bondi Beach attack exposed heroism, and a vacuum in Labor's leadership

One of the inescapable realisations of the Bondi attack is the clear examples of leadership it has demonstrated, and the dearth it has exposed in the Federal Parliament.

Of all the interventions that have mattered, none have really come from Federal MPs.

The contrast was on display again this week, a fortnight after the attack when two men spoke to the nation, one from the soul about the lives he did not save, the other out to save his political hide.

We finally heard from the man himself, Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian shopkeeper who disarmed gunman Sajid Akram with his bare hands at Bondi on December 14.

His actions saved lives. Footage of his quick-thinking actions went viral, and he has deservedly become a global hero.

Wounded in the attack, his hospital room has provided a photo-opportunity for the rotating cast of politicians who have paid homage at his bedside ever since.

Finally, out of hospital, he granted his first interview to the US television network, CBS and described his reaction to seeing father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram trying to kill Jews marking Hanukkah at Bondi Beach.

“I feel something, a power in my body, my brain. I don’t want to see people killed in front of me,” he said.

“My target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being life and not killing innocent people.

“My soul asked me to do that, and everything in my heart and my brain, it worked, it managed to save the people’s life.”

Reflecting on what he did, he shared sorrow.

“I know I saved lots of people’s life, innocent kids, women and men, I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry still for the lost.”

Mr Ahmed’s reflex, to put aside his own interests, his own life, for the sake of others, was undoubtedly the same instinct that drove 69-year-old Boris and 61-year-old Sofia Gurman.

Both Jewish, the Gurmans were Sajid and Naveed Akram’s first two victims. They were killed trying to stop the attack from even starting.

Overpowered, they were shot to death. Drone footage showed the couple, married 34 years and approaching their 35th anniversary, died in each other’s arms.

They paid the ultimate price for taking the same risks as Ahmed al-Ahmed; they sacrificed their lives.

Their stories have resounded around the world not just for their tragedy, but for their everyday example.

While no one should ever have to be put under this sort of trial, they all acted in the way we all hope we might, if ever faced with similar circumstances - God forbid.

They put something, someone, others before themselves. This was not just courage and bravery; it was leadership. The type so bold, so daring, it smacks you in the face.

All the more because it was in stark contrast to the lack of leadership that has emanated from the Federal Government since that day.

As Ahmed Al-Ahmed was expressing his despair that his acts had not saved the 15 who died at Bondi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a new excuse for why he would not hold a Royal Commission into the country’s worst terror attack, which specifically targeted Jews.

“Where Royal Commissions are not as good, is to consider things that are not agreed, where people have differences of views and to enable, which is what it would do, a repetition of some of the worst elements,” Mr Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke claimed a Royal Commission would “effectively relive some of the worst examples of anti-Semitism over the last two years.”

In short, Labor thinks it would be too hurtful for the Jewish community to have an investigation into the explosion of anti-Semitic events across Australia since October 7 because they might be forced to hear the views and revisit the actions of anti-Semites.

Never mind that the Jewish community, as well as 17 families of the slain victims, are begging for this type of inquiry, Mr Albanese thinks he knows their feelings and what they can cope with better than they do.

Of course the truth is that this is nothing more than an attempt to evade any scrutiny over whether he and his government could and should have done more to throw a protective ring around the Jewish community, which had been warning of the risks of the anti-Semitic vandalism, firebombings and marches turning dangerous and deadly.

Jews aren’t sending their children to sports and schools guarded by security and police because they are too frail to deal with the reality of anti-Semitism; this is the reality they live every day in Australia in 2025.

Yet Mr Albanese thinks he knows what’s best for them.

Make no mistake, this is gross political protectionism dressed up as paternalism.

Or as Jenny Roytur, whose uncle Boris Tetleroyd was killed at Bondi put it to The Sydney Morning Herald, the act of a “coward”.

And what a contrast it is to the selfless courage displayed by those who rushed to help on December 14. They did not seek leadership but earned a place in Australian history with how they acted when tested.

Mr Albanese did seek leadership. Yet he is interested in using the power granted to him by the public to protect his position and blame scapegoats.

This was made obvious by the terms of reference that he issued in relation to the inquiry he started into the law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

He wants Dennis Richardson, a former and widely respected boffin, to investigate what the intelligence agencies knew and when, what judgements they made, whether they could have done more and if they need more powers to prevent a next time.

The words anti-Semitism and Jews don’t appear in the terms of reference.

Speaking on Tuesday, he laughably insisted he was not acting out of “convenience” but “out of conviction that this is the right direction to go in,” citing “the actual experts who are the current experts” as recommending “this course of action”.

“And we are following the advice that we receive from authorities who are in 2025 dealing with this atrocity,” he said.

It was another cop out. Royal Commissions are political decisions, not ones outsourced to bureaucratic advice.

The Prime Minister is obviously scared any inquiry into anti-Semitism might blow back onto himself or elements of his Labor party movement and has resorted to pretending to want to protect the Jewish community from hearing nasty views.

As Philip Coorey in the Financial Review pointed out, Labor has tried this trick before, after the COVID pandemic, they protected the actions of the Labor premiers that imposed the world’s worst lock downs on Australians by pretending a Royal Commission would platform the “cookers”.

The question is if Australians will fall for Albanese’s tap dance of evasion a second time.