Nationals leader David Littleproud unleashes on Labor’s refusal to establish Bondi royal commission

Nationals leader David Littleproud has launched a scathing attack on the Albanese government over its refusal to hold a federal royal commission into the Bondi massacre. On Monday, Anthony Albanese once again ruled out a federal probe into the terror attack, citing “national security” concerns and the risk to social cohesion. In lieu of a royal commission, the government has established an independent review led by former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson AC, who will examine the actions of Australia’s federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the lead up to the attack. The decision came despite the families of Bondi victims signing an open letter to the Prime Minister and urging him to establish a federal investigation into anti-Semitism. Mr Littleproud claimed Mr Albanese’s refusal to listen to the demands of grieving families was “contemptuous”. “He’s gone from tone deaf to contemptuous, not just to the victims’ families but to a grieving nation that has been violated in the most egregious way,” Mr Littleproud told 4BC. He later added: “This is our nation’s moment, and it is his moment. And unless he grabs it, our society and the one that we will hand to the next generation, which we are the custodians of, will be lesser for it.“We will be handing a disjointed society that will accept anti-Semitism.” ‘The right thing’: Albo’s Bondi probe defence Despite ruling out a federal royal commission, Mr Albanese has acknowledged the calls to establish one — primarily from the Jewish community — come from a “good place”. “This atrocity is something which understandably, people want answers on how it occurred,” he said on Tuesday. He also reiterated the Commonwealth’s commitment to complying with the NSW royal commission and emphasised the importance of the Richardson review. “We will have a New South Wales royal commission that will look at the actions clearly of New South Wales authorities, including the police response, gun licensing issues that are the prerogative of the New South Wales government. “But also we’ve said very clearly that the Commonwealth Government will co-operate with those processes and will provide whatever information is requested is necessary during those processes. “Of course, there are lessons to be learnt and we of course will fully support New South Wales in that process. “But in the meantime as well, we want to make sure that there are no gaps in the federal system.” The federal government’s position was “not out of convenience”, Mr Albanese said, but out of “conviction”. He went on to highlight Labor’s crackdown on hate speech, ban on hate symbols and doxxing, as well as its work with anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal. “We want to work on providing solutions here, which is what we are determined to do the right thing, not necessarily the easy thing,” he said. Burke defends rejected Bondi probe Despite pressure mounting on Labor to conduct a national probe into the attack, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has held firm on the government’s stance that its actions are sufficient in examining the lead-up to the massacre. Mr Burke said he “understands completely” the demands for a royal commission to take place but noted that Australians may have to wait years for answers if the government chose to go down that path. “We need answers, and we need them fast,” Mr Burke told the ABC. “ … this report will happen by April. I wish it were sooner, but certainly a royal commission to be dealing with that would be a much longer timeline, and the person in charge of it would not have the expertise that we have with Dennis Richardson.” Mr Burke’s comments come one day after the families of 17 people who were injured or killed in the terror attack signed an open letter calling for a royal commission into the “failures” that led to the attack. “We demand answers and solutions,” they wrote. “We need to know why clear warning signs were ignored, how anti-Semitic hatred and Islamic extremism were allowed to dangerously grow unchecked, and what changes must be made to protect all Australians going forward.” Mr Burke said Mr Richardson’s review would look into what factors were missed by authorities in the lead-up to the attack and what needed to change in the future to prevent another from occurring. “In terms of his powers, he has been guaranteed full co-operation of our agencies, full co-operation,” Mr Burke said. “The information that he needs, he will get. The conversations he needs to have, he will get, and he will then be able to report and report fast. Royal commissions can take years.” Mr Burke also defended the steps the government had already taken to prevent the spread of hate speech across the country and said they would go further in the coming months. The Albanese government is seeking to toughen hate speech laws and crack down on Islamic preachers spouting hatred on Australian soil, including developing a federal offence for those who seriously vilify based on race or advocate for racial supremacy. “We’ve all seen videos of hate preachers who represent a tiny minority in this country but who have horrific views. And we look at them and we say, how on earth are they allowed to say that?” Mr Burke said. “They’ve been just on the right side of law in Australia, so we are changing the law so that those forms of hate speech are illegal.” Missing words in Labor’s Bondi probe The refusal to launch a federal royal commission has been blasted by the Coalition, with Sussan Ley describing the Richardson review as “insufficient and inadequate”. On Tuesday, the Opposition Leader claimed Mr Albanese’s review could be “folded into” a Commonwealth probe and still make early interim recommendations. However, she also lashed Mr Albanese’s announcement of the draft terms of reference for the Richardson review, saying it “did not mention anti-Semitism”. “There wasn’t one word about it. And the purpose of this Commonwealth royal commission is to uncover how anti-Semitism was allowed to escalate, how warnings were missed or ignored, and whether existing laws, institutions, and funding arrangements failed to protect Australians,” Ms Ley told 2GB. Earlier, Mr Burke was also grilled on why the announcement had failed to mention anti-Semitism. “The review from Dennis Richardson is clearly, (when) you go through the terms, it’s in the wake of an anti-Semitic terror attack,” he said. “There is no way of conducting that inquiry without dealing with anti-Semitism. “What matters is that we have terms of reference that give Dennis Richardson all the powers to be able to deal and provide recommendations fast on anything we need to do to be able to upgrade the national security systems in Australia. “That’s what that’s about. And there is an urgency to us being able to do this. The other methods of inquiry that are proposed take years.”