Pressure mounts on Labor to launch Federal Royal Commission following Bondi terror attack

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has denied Labor’s opposition to a Royal Commission is rooted in fears of what the investigation could uncover, as pressure mounts to launch a federal probe into anti-Semitism.

On Sunday, Anthony Albanese announced the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet would investigate Australia’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The Prime Minister has not pushed for a Federal Royal Commission despite NSW Premier Chris Minns publicly backing a state investigation.

Speaking to the ABC, Senator Wong was asked whether the Government was “afraid” of pursuing a Federal investigation.

“I think that’s imputing intentions which are not there,” she said.

“I think the focus that we have at the moment is to make sure that our agencies have the powers to keep people safe. And that’s why the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee have focused on a review which ensures we get that information quickly, which is by April.”

She confirmed the Federal Government would co-operate with the state probe but pivoted to the Government’s planned review of counter-terrorism agencies.

“We have to make sure that our national security arrangements are fit for purpose and are able to keep people safe. And we need to learn from any mistakes, if there were any, made in the context of these attacks in a context where we see ISIS and extremist ideology in our country,” she said.

“Now, this is the same organisation that the United States has just engaged in bombing raids on.

“We all saw ISIS’s perverse ideology and violent acts in the early part of the last decade. They’ve killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world, most of them Muslim, and now we have ISIS-inspired terrorism in our country.

“So our focus is what do we have to do to keep Australians safe? And a review that reports by April gives Government and the country the assurance that we are doing that.”

‘Not good enough’: Spender Independent MP Allegra Spender has joined calls for a Federal probe into anti-Semitism, saying Labor’s prospective review of national security agencies is “not good enough”.

The Wentworth MP – whose electorate includes Bondi – told the ABC that she welcomed the inquiry into intelligence agencies however urged a stronger investigation into all levels of Government.

“I welcome a review, but frankly, this is not good enough,” she said.

“We need a Federal and State collective Royal Commission or that sort of inquiry to get to the heart of what happened last week and what we can learn from it.

“We have 15 Australians who have died. We owe to them, and to the Jewish community who were targeted simply because of their religion, to leave no stone unturned to understand what happened and what collectively we (can) do to give us the best chance that this can never happen again.”

Ms Spender went as far as to say the intelligence review was “inadequate”, agreeing with harsh criticisms lobbied at the Government by former treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

The review’s “narrow scope” and focus on securing the safety of Australians “in the future” needed to be bolstered by a retrospective look at what had gone wrong, she said.

“If we look at the past honestly, then we have a chance of moving forward,” she said.

“But we can’t just say, ‘oh, let’s look to the future’. We actually have to look at the past as well.”