Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the seventh of January.
I'm Zara Seidler, I'm Sam Kazlowski.
In the aftermath of the Bondai terrorist attack, pressure is mounting for a federal royal commission into anti Semitism in Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi has rejected the calls on a number of occasions, but families of victims, business and sport leaders, some labor MPs, and the opposition say it's essential after
the country's worst ever terrorist attack. In today's podcast, we'll unpack the calls for a royal commission, what it actually is and why the Prime Minister is suggesting it might delay action.
So Zara, I feel like after the first kind of seven days post the terror attack at Bondai, the conversation kind of over the Christmas break really did turn to the nature of the government investigation into what had happened in Bondai and what that investigation would actually look like, and there were some strong calls for a royal commission into anti Semitism. Take me back to the origins of these calls and let's go from there.
Yeah, so I'll take one step further back, and I don't think anyone needs reminding, but just as a refresher, on December fourteenth, two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish community event at Bondai Beach. Fifteen innocent people were killed and many more were injured. Hundreds of members of the Jewish community had gathered to mark the first day of
Kanaka when those gunmen opened fire. Now, authorities very quickly declared that to be a terrorist attack, and it's now been labeled the deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil so ever before. So that is what happened on December fourteenth. As you said then, it was a week or two afterwards that we started to hear these calls for a
royal commission. Begin now. On the twenty ninth of December, family members of victims who had been murdered in that massacre published an open letter, and in that open letter they called for the Prime Minister very clearly to immediately establish a Royal commission into the rise of antisemitism here
in Australia. In particular, the families called for a commission to investigate the quote rapid rise of anti Semitism in Australia following Hamas's attack on October seven and the law enforcement, intelligence and policy failures that led to the Bondai Beach massacre. The letter went on to say that quote we demand answers and solutions and to know why clear warning signs were ignored.
And I think why this is a tricky story to break down is because there have been some inquiries announced in that time since. So to really understand what we're talking about today, I do think we need to understand exactly what a royal commission is. Give me like a definition of a royal commission.
Yes, so a Royal commission is a major investigation into something of great importance to the country. Now, they're called by governments, usually the federal government, but are carried out independently to minimize conflict of interest, so they will appoint somebody independently so that the government can't be accused of meddling in the course of it. Once called, the Royal commission has strong powers to talk to witnesses, to request
information and consult with experts. So there are ordinary investigations and then there's a Royal commission, and this one has more powers than an ordinary investigation might.
So give me a sense of, like what type of topics in the last couple of years have had a Royal commission into them.
So we've had a Royal commission into defense and veteran suicides. We've had one into the robodet scheme. What you can tell from those two topics alone is that they're typically reserved for issues that require serious and thorough investigation. They're not for run of the mill issues day to day.
And you mentioned before that it wasn't just the families of the victims who were calling for this royal commission. There were other groups. Who else is kind of jumping on that call.
Yeah, I've got to say it felt like every day over the holidays when you opened a newspaper there was a different open letter that had been published that day. So, as I said, it started with the families, We've since had business leaders publish an open letter. We've had judges and legal professionals publish an open letter. We've had sports stars here in Australia publish an open letter. So it's kind of been a cross industry response to this terrorist attack.
There have also been calls from within the Labor Party, So people like Ed Husick and Mike Freelander who sit on the back bench, they've called on their own party, as well as former Labor MPs who have also published public letters calling for this. Then across the Aisle we've had Opposition Leader Susan Lee repeatedly calling on the Prime Minister to call a royal commission. She has said that
quote the Prime Minister has called for unity today. There is unity from every sector of Australia pleading for this Commonwealth Royal Commission. And so to get to the heart of what all of these various letters are calling for, it's that there is a belief that only a federal Royal Commission has the authority to examine anti Semitism, to examine the why, as they put it, behind this attack.
So we'll speak in a bit about some other investigations that are ongoing, things that are looking at, say intelligence failures. But those that are calling for a Royal commission are suggesting that there needs to be a mechanism through which to look at and examine and investigate the anti Semitism that underpinned this terrorist attack that targeted the Jewish community.
And they believe the people that are openly calling for this royal commission that it's a way to pull together all of the different I guess themes and things that have come up in the course of the last few weeks, things like who knew what and gun violence, but also then, as I said, the ideological underpinnings of the attack itself.
Right, So it's kind of bringing everything together in one kind of big royal federal investigation. What has the Prime Minister's response been to this?
So until now, the Prime Minister has publicly rejected calls for a royal commission, and I'll go into his points as to why. In a moment, we did get an update yesterday and exclusive from the Nine Papers that suggested the Prime Minister might be shifting his view on this, that privately he has discussed potentially going out and calling
for one. But right now all that's been said publicly is that the Prime Minister will not carry out a royal commission, a federal royal commission, and instead he's outlined a four point plan that he says is his government's response to the attack. First, and I'll go through these four points. First, he said that ensuring the surviving gunman goes through the legal system is a top priority. We know one of the gunmen was killed during a police shootout.
The other one has been moved to maximum security prison and is awaiting a court appearance.
There that'll be in April, I think, yeah.
And then secondary to that, the government is supporting a New South Wales Royal Commission that Premier Chris Mins has already announced. So just to not get confused here, so state and federal different powers, different jurisdictions. Obviously, this attack took place in Sydney, which is in New South Wales. So the New South Wales Premier has announced he will launch a state Royal Commission. We don't really know what
that will look like yet. I spoke to his office just before we got on Mike and they said that they're currently working through what those terms of reference would be. So we don't have a whole heap of information, but we do know that Anthony Alberanezi has said that his government would support that Royal Commission and whatever was found there, and.
Just quickly to break down that little bit of political term terms of reference, that's kind of like a menu of what they would want the commission to look at, right.
Yeah, so the scope of it essentially. Thirdly, there has been an independent review announced by the federal government, not a royal commission, an independent review into the effectiveness of Australia's police and intelligence agencies in the context of this Bondai terrorist attack. So this is currently underway. It's being undertaken by Dennis Richardson and that is due by April. So that's a fairly quick turnaround. That is specifically looking
into intelligence failures. So what happened with a zo afp the like to understand who knew what and when got basically okay? Then so I said there was a four point plan by the government.
So the prosecution of the individual who's still alive. Correct, We have the new South Wales Royal Commission which has been announced by Chris Means, but we don't know what exactly that's going to look at. Then we have the independent review into these security and law enforcement aspects of this.
Yeah. And then fourth, fourth, yeah, Fourth, we have the government's response to recommendations from a July report called the Plan to Combat Anti Semitism. Now that report was delivered by Australia's Special Envoid to Combat Anti Semitism. Her name is Gillian Siegel.
In July of last year, you said, correct, So that report.
Was handed down around six months ago. Now at the time, the government said it was considering its response to the report. Then, following the Bonde attack, Albanzi said his government would accept the recommendations and would work to implement them. And I just want to sit on this point a bit further because whenever Anthony Alberanzi has been asked about why he won't call a royal commission into anti Semitism, he has pointed out things he's done so far, like setting up
the first envoy into anti Semitism in this country. Jillian Siegel was the first person to be appointed to that position, and so he has pointed to that as a there's already been an investigation into anti Semitism, and be that he says his government is already acting on her recommendations. I do think, though, for the purposes of this conversation not to get confused, let's stay talking about a royal commission.
So would you say that essentially, Anthony Alberze's point is that we already have investigations underway, and that announcing a royal Commission and getting that process started could delay action.
Yeah. Yeah, that's basically the main argument that's been put forward by Albanesi and his government. They're saying, there is already this new South Wales one, and there is already this independent review happening. As I said, that's been handed down in April, and his suggestion is that any Commonwealth Royal commission would slow that down. We know that royal commissions can take a long time. For example, the Royal Commission into Defense and Veterans Suicide took three years, and
so Albanese's claims have been essentially, let's act quicker. We don't want this to be slowed down. Obviously, the families of the victims and all those other industry bodies that I've spoken about disagree with this point, but that's certainly what the government is putting forward. There has also been another argument put forward by the government. I specifically heard Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister, talking about this one. He has suggested that holding a Royal commission could worsen
social cohesion. He said that it could provide a platform for what he called the worst voices when it comes to anti semitism, can.
You spell out how that would play out in a Royal Commission.
Setting, basically, because there would be hearings and people would have to appear before the Royal Commission. The suggestion there is possibly we could hear even further anti semitism, or these people would have a voice or a platform to make their views known. On the flip side of that, though, we've heard from the daughter of victim, Reuven Morrison, who said, let those voices be heard to get the answers that we need. She said, we have to face up to
the worst. We must do whatever it to get the answers we need. So we have lots of voices here, lots of differing opinions. But this is a story that we're going to have to watch. It's not going away. After all. It was the worst terrorist attack, as we said, in Australian history, and what happens from here will be closely followed.
It will be and we'll be keeping an eye on all those individual inquiries as they play out. Will also be, of course, as with a lot of the country, watching the criminal proceedings that adue to resume in April. Tzara, thank you for taking us through that.
Thanks Sam and thank you for joining us for this episode of the Daily os. We'll be back later today with the headlines, but until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda bunge Lung Kalkotin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both parts, just in present