Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: On 14 December last year, our nation was shattered by an act which was evil. An antisemitic terrorist attack shook the nation. The deadliest terrorist attack that has ever occurred on Australian soil, targeting Jewish Australians on the first night of Chanukah at our iconic Bondi Beach. This should have been an occasion where every Australian could celebrate what is a victory of light over darkness. Instead, 15 innocent men, women and children were killed and many were wounded. Five months on from the attack, Australia’s Jewish community is still grieving, still hurting, still craving answers. And that’s why my government set up the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, led by the Honourable Virginia Bell. To help us understand what happened that day, to help us stamp out the hatred that drove the attackers and to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. Today the Government is pleased to receive Commissioner Bell’s Interim Report. And I thank the Commissioner for the extraordinary work that she and her team have done. And I thank also those who participated and made submissions and will continue to do so, given they are still open for a short period ahead. Commissioner Bell has found that our existing legal and regulatory frameworks did not hinder our agencies in preventing or responding to the Bondi attack, and that no urgent changes are required to keep Australians safe. But the Commissioner does make 14 recommendations which go to enhancing our national counter-terrorism arrangements and capabilities. This is as the Government envisaged, that the first task of the Royal Commission, the priority was to look at the security elements of these issues. I can confirm that the National Security Committee has met this morning and we have adopted and will implement all the recommendations of the Interim Report that are relevant to the Commonwealth. A number of the recommendations relate to state and territory jurisdictions, aimed at ensuring a nationally consistent approach to implementation. And we’ll work constructively with state and territory governments on those issues. A small number of recommendations are classified because they could compromise sensitive national security information. But I can assure the Australian public that the Government will do everything necessary to protect the community. In the wake of the Bondi attack, my government took immediate action to bolster the resources of our security agencies, tackle antisemitism, crack down on hate preachers and deliver tougher gun laws. That’s why we brought the Parliament back in January. We weren’t able to get the support across the Parliament of everything we wanted to achieve, but we did make substantial progress. Commissioner Bell’s recommendations complement those changes that we already made. I want to thank Commissioner Bell and her team for their hard work and professionalism in delivering this report. My thanks also to Dennis Richardson for leading the Independent Review of Australia’s Federal Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies, which became part of the Royal Commission. And I look forward to receiving Commissioner Bell’s final report this year.
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