How the Bondi shootings will change Australia

On Sunday night in Bondai, two gunmen opened fire on Jewish families. Sixteen people, including one of the gunmen, are confirmed dead, making the tragedy Australia's first mass shooting in nearly thirty years. A further forty two people were taken to hospital, as well as the second gunman, who is under police guard. ASIO has confirmed one of the gunmen was known to them and that are reports the men

Will put tougher gun laws to national cabinet.

I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven am today Federal Member for Wentworth A Legrispender on how the Bondai community is responding to this tragedy and what needs to change to keep Jewish Australian safe. It's Tuesday, December sixteenth, Algra.

Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

You're in North Bondai now, just meters from where this attack happened.

Can you describe to.

Me what's been happening at Bondai today.

I mean today, people from all over the community, people who were there, people who weren't. There are coming down, sharing grief, laying flowers and talking to each other, and it has been an absolutely devastating day for the whole of the Bondai community and especially for the Jewish community.

Can you tell me.

A bit about the conversations that you've been having with people in the Jewish community.

I think there is an enormous sense of fear, sense of grief, sense of anger, a whole range of emotions that I've seen today. I spoke to one woman. She said, I'm the eighth generation Australian from a Jewish community, and she said, you know, I'm scared. You know that we will never be safe here. That is so terrible to

Yeah, he's one of.

The fifteen people who were killed on Sunday night. Can you tell me a bit more about the other victims.

Well, there are a range of victims. One of them is a ten year old girl called Matilda. What name you know is more Australian than that, and yeah, that's her family. We have a Holocaust survivor, people who went to extraordinary lengths to look after each other in a horrific moment. And just to be honest, the fear that I have seen in the community, not just the Jewish community, but the whole community who was there is overwhelming.

And you mentioned the stories of heroism as well. I'm sure most people now have seen the video of a civilian who approached one of the gunmen and disarmed him. His name is Ahmed al Ahmed. He's a fruit shop owner from the south of Sydney. What did you think when you saw that footage?

I thought he was the bravest man I've ever seen.

He, you know, someone to symbolize what it means to be Australian, to stand up for what you believe is right. He is unbelievable. I think he's a national international hero. You know, he saved lives yesterday and we must all be grateful for him, you know, standing up and being an incredible Australian and it's been.

Confirmed that one of the attackers had a gun license and had amassed six guns legally which we used in the attack. The Prime Minister is that he's going to take tougher gun laws to National Cabinet now for consideration.

Tougher gun laws including limits on the number of guns that can be used or licensed by individuals, a review of licenses over a period of time. People's circumstances change, people can be radicalized over a period of time, Licenses should not be in perpetuity, and checks of course making sure that those checks and balances are in place as well.

Is that overdue?

I think it's absolutely right that we do this.

I know that there has been some a lot of concern out there about, you know, the sort of delay in some aspects of sharing firearms and licenses and those sorts of things across the country. So that is really important. But I think, you know, there is much, much, much other work that needs to be done.

And as I have said, that one of the shooters was known to them, yet the two were able to mass a lot of firepowers, So will you be asking how that could have been allowed to happen?

Absolutely, and I think that is one of those.

There are many questions to be answered, and one of them is how that happened and what was known about this person and why this person was not seen as an ongoing threat from Asia. These are very important questions that the community is asking and that we need answers to.

And this is clearly a targeted anti Semitic attack in an environment when we've seen increasing displays of anti Semitism. You've said that there have been missteps by the government and tackling this, So what do you think they are.

Look, I think this has been building.

So anti Semitism has been growing in this country for the last over two years since October seven attacks, and what you have seen over this time is people be more brazen and people need to be honestly more socially acceptable. People say, well, you know, I'm not anti Semitic, I'm just anti Zionist, recognizing that around eighty percent plus Australia to use are Zionists. So in some cases that is

You know, there are many things and many moments.

I'm sure that I wonder if we had taken a stronger police response, then, if we had a more coordinated approach, then if we had spoken up more strongly, would things have been changed?

You know?

Certainly one area I will continue to fight on is law reform and relation to hate speech, because I think, you know what I think. You know, there are people in this country, around this country where we disagree and that's really appropriate. But where people start to spread hate, that is where we need to draw really bright lines. There will be a lot of analysis after this to see what actually went wrong yesterday, but the build up of anti Semitism has been happening over a long period of time.

How do you.

Think about the need to balance keeping Jewish Australians safe with the right for Australians to protest war in the Middle East.

People's right to process is really important and I have always supported that.

But the question I ask.

Everyone, and I think we all need to think about today is what are my actions doing in terms of both my local community and the international community. Are my individual actions making this country better and safe for all of us and for the world. I think those are the questions that we need to ask ourselves every day. I try and come back to what Australia stands for.

That is what modern Australia is about.

And I think that's really important to me right now because people were targeted by terrorists on the basis of their faith and that is completely un Australian and I think collectively we need to stand up against that anti Semitism and say no Australian should be targeted on the basis of their faith like the Jewish community was yesterday.

After the break the risk of politicizing a.

Tragedy, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Nyahu has blamed Anthony albernezi Is, saying the Prime Minister poured fuel on the anti Semitism fire in recognizing a Palestinian state. The opposition leader Susan Lee has also blamed the Prime Minister, given that there are reports that one of the gunmen was in vestigated for supporting Islamic state back in twenty nineteen.

What is your response to that.

I think we need to understand what happened yesterday before we try an apportion blame on people said.

I I've been clear.

I think that the government has made missteps, but we do not know that if any of the missteps that have made, whether that contributed to yesterday or not, we just don't know.

And when you say missteps, can you tell me any more about what you think those missteps are.

Look, I mean, I think you know this has been going on for the last two years, so it can be you know, was the government fast enough you bring together police? And you know, I'm not just talking about the federal government here, I'm talking about also the state government. We've had process, many people concerned about some extreme content in some of the process, and that hasn't been.

Policed effectively enough. You know, there are many different steps.

Again, I don't say that you know one step has led to yesterday, But I think it is going to take more than just changes to laws, and more than just stepping up in policing. It is also going to take a collective I think wakening from the broader community about you know the seriousness of what the community is facing and how important it is for all of us in what we say online, what we do, how we treat each other to disagree, but disagree respectfully, and that is really really important.

Yep.

What do you think it would take to make the Jewish community feel safe again in Australia.

I think that's an incredibly hard question because I think many people in the Jewish community don't know if they ever will feel safe again honestly after this. But I think it is up to all of us because that's what this country is based on. This country is based on the idea that doesn't matter your faith, it doesn't matter your sexuality or you know where you come from, you should be safe and welcome here. So what would

And as you say, it has been such a short time since the attack happened, we don't know very much about these men and their ideology. Yeah, so what do you think the risk is in a portioning blame, whether that is to the Prime Minister or to protesters who muched across the Sydney hrbor Bridge before war, we fully understand what has actually happened here.

I think that is You're right there are risks in doing that, and I think this can be an incredibly important turning point for Australia where we collectively say what we stand for and in a very positive way reaffirm our Australian values, which are the best famiues in the world. So I think you are right to say that it is dangerous to abortion blame and it is dangerous to try and divide our country right now. And I think that's where come back to the common values and be careful.

Yeah, I think you're right.

Well, Alga, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much for having me.

Also in the news, Prime Minister Anthony Alberinezi has about to introduce tougher gun control laws, including limiting the number of firearms someone could have and an audit of existing licenses. The Prime Minister says reforms introduced by John Howard in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre made an enormous difference, but indicated the government will examine whether any restrictions can

I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.