Katina Curtis: Playing politics on Bondi massacre is deepening divides, let kindness be the watchword in 2026

The shockwaves from the Bondi massacre continue to roil politics and will no doubt shape Australia for years. The events of December 14 have exposed — and deepened — a rift at the core of the nation’s soul. The Scanlon Institute’s annual report on social cohesion showed growing negative attitudes to people of religious faith over the past three years, with the largest increases towards Jewish and Muslim people. This should worry everyone. It would be trite to suggest that kindness could undo centuries of hatred. Pollyannaish in the extreme to dream that it could have prevented the horrific events of 16 days ago. However, it absolutely has a role to play in bringing the community back together and finding answers. “There’s no doubt about the fact that it’s going to change Bondi, but we think it can be stronger in the broken places,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Monday. At the moment however, it feels like our cracks are only getting wider. Crack within politics, and between political leaders and the community they serve. Seeking answers to “how did we get here” — not only narrower questions around failures of intelligence — would go some way to start the repair job. Anthony Albanese’s deaf ear to people wanting these broader answers looks lacking in kindness. He is continuing to refuse to give in to demands — now coming directly from the families of Bondi massacre victims — to call a royal commission. It’s exacerbated fury among the Jewish community. Senior Labor figures hold fears about the demands for a royal commission that go beyond the received wisdom that you never call such an inquiry into your own side. One is pure politics: what guarantees are there that such an inquiry would lead to the co-operation of the Opposition? Factoring in political machinations to future responses to national crises will make kindness harder to find on all sides. The other fear, as articulated by Tony Burke on Monday, is what it would mean in a community already riven by fears and hatreds to further platform those divisions. There’s politics in this too; an inquiry into anti-Semitism alone would be unlikely to be favourable to the Government. But Albanese didn’t answer why there couldn’t be a broader inquiry into combatting extremism. Can or should Islamist extremists be dealt with the same way as neo-nazis or sovereign citizens, how are they being radicalised, and are we doing the right things to stop it? It’s going to take steel and compassion to tackle. Katina Curtis is the Canberra bureau chief