This article was originally published in The Australian on or about 8 January 2026 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication.
It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
PM has given a textbook case study in how not to handle a national crisis
Anthony Albanese has finally received the advice he needs on holding a royal commission after the Bondi Beach massacre, rather than the advice he gets from his underwhelming office and a dumbed-down, complacent bureaucracy.
I refer to the national security and defence leaders’ call for a federal royal commission into anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism, published by this newspaper on Wednesday.
The list includes a former chief of defence force, several chiefs of the navy, army and air force, two former heads of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, a former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, a former secretary of Veterans Affairs, a former commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and others with deep defence, intelligence and public service experience.
This is not a community easily given to signing petitions and it isn’t a list of people that the Prime Minister can credibly dismiss as not being “actual experts”.
Here I offer a disclaimer: I am privileged to be on this list – it’s a who’s who of the national security community of the past few decades. I spent the past week drawing it together and I found a group of people deeply troubled by the internal and external security threats Australia is facing.
The statement says: “Anti-Semitism and Islamist extremism pose serious national security challenges for Australia. They fracture social cohesion, fuel violence and weaken our national resilience.”
We do not make that statement lightly. Divided societies invite external interference.
With the help of advice from Israeli intelligence, our security agencies found that Iranian agents were sponsoring terrorist attacks against Australian Jews.
A firebombed synagogue, attacks on Australian Jewish businesses, homes and vehicles, the ever-present graffiti, and year of angry protests on our streets – all this set the context and direction for what ultimately happened at Bondi Beach.
It’s not as though the government wasn’t told. We can thank ASIO head Mike Burgess for some forensic speeches that described the landscape.
While ASIO’s public analysis was helpful, all thinking people could see for themselves the direction in which Australia was heading. All, except for Albanese and his government.
A federal royal commission, one set up with the right independent-minded leadership, a wide remit and strong investigative powers, is essential.
The national security and defence leaders statement says “an inquiry must have the scope to address government-level decision-making, consider social, educational and institutional frameworks and recommend necessary budget and policy reform.
“A properly constituted and empowered inquiry would have to examine the actions of the government itself, including its ministers, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and in the wake of the elevation of the national terrorism threat level on August 5, 2024. It would have to examine resourcing levels and specific actions taken in the wake of the change in the threat level.”
My military, intelligence and national security cosignatories are more than capable of putting their own views, so from here I am putting my personal opinion, an opinion based on a career of advising government about defence and security. The Prime Minister has given us a textbook case study in how not to handle a national crisis.
His failures are systemic and tactical. Albanese’s government could not see that its failure to strongly push back against anti-Semitism was creating the conditions for the Bondi Beach incident.
The half-hearted responses to a massive spike in Jew hatred; the wink, wink toleration of the so-called pro-Palestinian protests; the calculated trashing of relations with Israel; covertly facilitating the return of Islamic State families; fast-tracking visas for Gazans without proper security checks – all these actions set the context for Bondi Beach.
Then there are failures of process such as dropping the heads of ASIS and ASIO from regularly attending the national security committee of cabinet; the clear downgrading of defence as a government priority; and replacing a highly credible head of the Office of National Intelligence with an Albanese office insider.
Albanese has simply never taken security seriously.
Then there is the Prime Minister’s failure in the immediate aftermath of Bondi Beach to handle the tactics of crisis management. Every day since the massacre he has looked slow, reluctant and unhappy to take the steps necessary to lend comfort to Australian Jews and to convince all of us that the government has a laser-like focus on national security.
Albanese’s refusal to hold a federal royal commission into anti-Semitism and Islamist extremism may yet be reversed. Many of his Labor colleagues realise they have failed to make the case against a royal commission.
Dennis Richardson’s review into the mechanics of police and intelligence co-operation is somewhat useful. It deserves to be a small chapter in a royal commission report.
But let’s be clear: Albanese’s announcement of the Richardson review was purely a diversionary tactic. The aim was to blunt the call for a deeper inquiry that inevitably would shine a light into deep failures at the political level.
If, across the next few weeks, Albanese bows to the inevitable and agrees to establish a federal royal commission, it will be important to ensure it has the right powers and terms of reference.
A generalised ramble through strategies to counter unspecified sources of hate will not be good enough.
So far, Albanese’s handling of his responsibilities since the Bondi Beach massacre has amounted to a dispiriting failure of process, leadership, courage and intellect.
That leaves at least the opportunity for redemption.
The national security and defence leaders’ statement says: “The Australian Jewish community produced one of our greatest military and national leaders, Sir John Monash. Sadly, Monash experienced anti-Semitism during much of his life. In his spirit, we say this is a time for courage, clear-sighted leadership and action.”
