I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM in the aftermath of the Bondai terror attack. The country is grieving. It's a moment that calls for unity and for leadership, but what we're seeing is something else. Within days, political lines hardened, a former Prime minister stepped in, the opposition
shifted its message, and international leaders joined the chorus. With political venoms so close to the surface, it revealed something deeper about how crisis is now handled in Australian politics. Today Press Gallery veteran Paul bon Jorno on the gap between who we want to be and who we are. It's Saturday, December twenty Paul, it's been a terrible week for the country. What struck you the most about the way our political leaders have handled themselves after Sunday's terror attack at Bondi.
Or Daniel, it has been a terrible week for the country, but we can't gain say that it's been a completely shocking week for the Jewish community and for the grieving
families in Bondai. And given that it's been frankly disgusting that people have tried to leverage political advantage by blaming the Prime Minister and the Government of Australia for this massacre, even saying that Alberanzi bears personal responsibility, when any sane or rational person would see the personal responsibility is borne by the gunman.
And immediately after the attack Israel's Prime Minister Bernjaminetna, who did exactly that, saying Alberanizi was to blame because of his decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
The government did nothing to stop the spread of anti Semitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action, You let the disease spread, and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.
How did Alberanzi handle that well?
Albanizi is acutely aware that at this time, the last thing he should do as the Prime Minister of Australia, the leader of the twenty seven million Australians from every walk of life, every belief and none, is to further enhance or further amplify the grief and the anger and the bewilderment that's out there. So rather than even engage with Netta Yahoo, he ignored the vitriol and the barbs, and he spoke of the need for us all to come together.
What people are looking for this time isn't more division. They are looking to come together. I've sat in homes in Sydney as well as having formal meetings with members of the Jewish community. They're hurting and I think all Australians' hearts goes out to them at this time.
And usually in Christis Paul, as you've mentioned, we see rare moments of bipartisanship. That's not what we've seen this week. Tell me how Susan Lee's response to the massacres shifted over the days following.
Well, I've got to say that on Sunday night, when we were all struggling to come to terms with what was happening. You know, at first you could hardly believe your ears. Then when you saw the television you couldn't believe your eyes. Susan Lee put out a statement which was considered and it was unifying. She said, today we stand together as Australians against hate in this moment of
profound tragedy and shock. She even said she provided the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth and state agencies with the coalition's full and unconditional support. Now, a source within the Liberal Party tells me that Lee overnight came in for extreme criticism for putting that statement out and not being far more political in shooting home as much blame as possible on Albanizi and the government. So next morning we saw a change of tack from Lee.
We've seen a clear failure to keep Jewish Australians safe. We've seen a clear lack of leadership in keeping Jewish Australians safe.
And she said it was a lack of leadership allowing anti Semitism to fester over the past two years.
And then former Prime Minister John Howard waiting quickly as well, blaming the PM for the rise in anti semitism and calling for further debate on gun reform. A diversion. I don't want that once more. Let me say that.
Couldn't be degraded into a debate about changes to government. Was that is a diversion. The issue here is anti Semitism. The failure over the last two years has been that of the federal government, led by the Prime Minister as Any alban Easy to bring sufficient energy to a broad based attack on the evil of Andy Semitism.
What did you make of his intervention?
Well, I thought it was extraordinary. I thought it was unbecoming for a former Prime minister, and I thought it was chriss politics the Times.
What you really think, Paul, You've covered the way John Howard handled port Arthur. How would you compare the way Anthony Alberenezi is responding now.
Well, you're right. I was in the Parliamentary press gallery when port Arthur happened. But Howard immediately responded as the leader of a nation that had just suffered an enormous damage, a hurt.
Prime Minister John Howard revealed his plans for strict new gun laws in the Federal Parliament late today.
We need to achieve a total prohibition on the ownership, possession, stale and importation of all automatic and semi automatic weapons.
And he was fully supported in that by Kim Beasley,
the leader of the Opposition. And when Howard decided that what port Arthur demonstrated was that Australia's gun laws did not offer enough protection to Australians, he moved, and he moved against outspoken elements of his base, particularly in the National Party, that repeated the slogan that we're hearing again now that guns don't kill, people kill, well, people with guns do kill, and Howard appreciated this and bought in far reaching gun reforms against some outspoken opposition, but with
the full support of Kim Beasley and the Parliament.
This week, the government has been blamed for not doing enough to stamp out a rise in anti Semitism. It's now been almost six months since Gillian Siegel handed down her report laying out what she thinks needs to be done to deal with anti Semitism. So has the government failed in not at least responding to what she had to say one way or another until after the attack.
Well, Daniel, that's the narrative that's been put out by some leaders of the Jewish community and being put out very strongly by the federal opposition and people like John Howard and Josh Friedenberg, the former Liberal Treasurer who's also Jewish.
Our Prime Minister. Our government has allowed Australia to be radicalized on his watch. It's time for him to accept personal responsibility for the death of fifteen innocent people, including a ten year old child.
But it doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all. Speaking to senior cabinet ministers this week, one did say to me, perhaps we should have put out a list of what we were doing and what we were still looking at, to assure people that we'd taken the report seriously. But having said that, he pointed, as Albanizi has and as Tony Burke has, to things that were immediately done, things like first ever hate laws.
Australia's diversity is our great strength. With these laws, we are sending a clear signal to those who seek to divide us. There is no place in this country for hate speech and other hateful conduct that urges or threatens violence against others.
Just very quickly on hate laws. You might remember there was a huge debate about whether freedom of speech was being impinged by eighteen c of the Racial Discrimination Act and should be appealed. You might even remember that the Liberal Attorney General George Brand has said people should be free to be bigots. Well, it was the Labor government after the Siegel Report that actually legislated against hate speech. It also legislated against hate symbols like the Nazi salute.
So things were being done there. There was an ombudsman put into universities to consider the situation about complaints about the treatment of Jewish students. All of these things were suggested by Siegel, and they were implemented by the Labor government and, by the way, implemented by a Jewish Attorney General,
Mark Dreyfuss. But let me say to you, and I know this from cabinet sources, that there were concerns about some elements of Siegel's report, particularly the definition of anti Semitism, because even though the definition at face value basically homes in on hatred of the Jews, the people who put it together also cited examples that could be seen as
anyone who criticizes Israel is by definition anti semitic. And this is a real worry because is that anti semitic or is it standing up for human values and human rights as laid out, for example, in the United Nations Charter. So there was some reluctance to go there. But now, of course, after what happened on the weekend, Alberizi has
embraced the definition that has been given. But Alberizi has said that he will work with the Special Envoy Gillian Siegel on how to apply the definition, how to assure greater safety for, for example, Jewish students on campus, while at the same time not impinging on freedom of speech in a democracy like Australia. It's a fine line, but it's one that surely has.
To be walked, coming up new laws to crack down on hate speech and a path through the division Paul. On Thursday, Anthony Alberinezi announced his five point plan to end Anti Semitism. What's in it?
Well, it's quite a lot in Daniel. The five point plan homes in on hate speech.
Firstly, the Attorney General and Minister for Home Affairs will develop a package of legislative reforms to crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalization.
It makes it an aggravated offense for preachers and leaders who promote violence. It increases penalties for hate speech that does promote violence, makes hate an aggravating factor for sentencing crimes and for online threats and harassment.
Fourthly, developing a regime for listing organizations as leaders engage in hate speech, promoting violence or racial hatred. And Fifthly, developing a narrow federal offense for serious vilification based on race and or advocating racial supremacy.
That last point will be quite difficult because governments labor and Liberal have not known what to do about vilification, given that some of Australia's senior church leaders were worried that vilification laws could stop them, for example, of preaching a belief that many of them have that homosexuality is a grave sin.
For example, Paul, the Liberal Party used to be the party of free speech. Like you said, they spent years trying to water down the Racial Discrimination Act. How significant has the shift been from them this week in relation to free speech.
It's been mightily significant. But it is of a peace with the way in which John Howard responded to nine to eleven, where a raft of new laws were brought in, with many human rights lawyers warning that we were chipping away at the very foundation of our free, democratic society.
So there is a.
Record, if you like. The Coalition has a record of encroaching on freedoms in the name of keeping us safe. And even though as you say, they were opposed to elements of the Racial Discrimination Act on the basis of free speech, I think last Sunday has absolutely changed the context, not only for the Coalition and the Liberals, but also for the government. As Tony Burke, the Minister, said in several interviews this week, the emphasis now is on keeping people safe.
And finally, Paul, I've been uneasy a week watching how device if this moment has become for all the people coming together to try and comfort each other there after a national tragedy, there's been people blaming each other and using it as an opportunity to peddle their own agendas. What do you think it would take to lower the temperature.
Well, I share with you discussed at the rank opportunism we've seen from politicians and their fellow travelers this week. The first thing that it will take is that we give the Jewish community, especially the families of the victims, but also their friends and their co religionists, time to grieve.
We should give them the dignity to feel their hurt and pain with our arms wrapped around them, but not trying to leverage anything from this pain other than rebuild a sense of belonging, a sense of justice, and a sense of recovery. That's going to take time. It won't be helped by thoughtless or inflamed rehtoric, but it's a task that the whole nation. Every one of us has to embrace.
Paul. Thank you so much for your time. Have a safe and happy Christmas in and a grand happy New Year.
Thank you very much. Daniel, the same to you and all the team. At seven am.
Tomorrow has been declared a day of reflection to one of the victims of last Sunday's attack. Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi has also said there would be a national day of mourning, which he will confirm in the new year. Seven Am was a daily show from Solstice Media. It's made by Adigus Bastow, Ari L Richards, Chris Dngate, Ruby Jones, Sarah mcveee, Travis Evans, zoltenfeh Joe and Me Daniel James. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hergan
of Envelope Audio. We'll be back next week with something Different, a series of episodes about the best cultural releases of twenty twenty five, everything from film, TV and books to music, podcasts and games. We hope you get some time to unwind over summer and dig into some great storytelling. You owe it to yourselves. Twenty twenty five has been one hell of a year. Thanks for listening,