In this interview, Mia Schlicht appeared on The Power Hour Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research into social cohesion.
All media appearances posted onto the IPA website are directly related to the promotion and dissemination of IPA research.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Gabriella Power:
Joining us now is Mia Schlicht, a Research Fellow, Institute of Public Affairs. Thank you so much for joining us, Mia.
Former treasurer, Josh Frydenberg has blasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his weak leadership following the Bondi terror attack. He made the comments at a memorial in Bondi.
Now, Josh Frydenberg said that the Prime Minister bore personal responsibility for the climate that led to Sunday’s attack, urging Labour to take a far tougher line. Listen to this.
Josh Frydenberg:
Prime Minister, I heard you say yesterday that you’re ready for the fight on guns.
Well, let me tell you, guns may have stolen the life of 15 innocent civilians, but it was radical Islamist ideology that pulled the trigger. And if you, Prime Minister, can’t say those words, Islamist ideology, if you can’t speak them, you can’t solve them.
So Prime Minister, you have failed us.
Your government has failed us.
Gabriella Power:
Mia, very powerful. This speech is going viral, many Australians acknowledging that this is what real leadership looks like.
Mia Schlicht:
Yeah, I think at this time, Australians are just desperate for some real strong leadership, and Josh Frydenberg has stepped up to fill that void here in Australia.
But I think he’s right in pointing out that if the Albanese government wants to focus on guns, then they have just missed the point entirely in this tragedy. At the end of the day, guns don’t cause people to have murderous ideology. They just don’t. It could have been any kind of weapon, it could have been … We have the detonator in the car that thankfully didn’t go off. Whether it’s knife crime, whether it’s driving a car into a crowd of people, the problem is the ideology behind these attacks, not the weapons.
And look, we had the Prime Minister who has spoken out, he’s done some press conferences, he’s put out statements. And of those 5,000 words that he has since spoken since this terrible incident, he never once muttered the words Islam or Islam extremism. Instead, he called it, he focused on it being an antisemitic terrorist attack.
Now, my concern is that if we have a prime minister who can’t even mouth the words Islamic terrorism, then we have a real problem in this country. Because this was an attack on the Australian way of life.
Gabriella Power:
Mm-hmm.
Mia Schlicht:
It was not just an attack on Jewish Australians, but it was an attack on all Australians. And we have a government who is far too preoccupied with tinkering around the edges of gun reform than actually acknowledging the real threat to Australia, and I think that’s a real cause for concern.
Gabriella Power:
I think you’re absolutely right.
And Josh Frydenberg also called for pro-Palestine protests to be banned, branding them “incubators of hate.” And looking at Anthony Albanese, he has shown no real emotion. I haven’t really seen any tears or that much anger that 15 innocent Australians have been murdered.
Let’s look at New South Wales premier Chris Minns’ response. The New South Wales government will be introducing what the premier calls “the strongest gun laws in the country” in the wake of Sunday’s terror attack. Chris Minns said that he’s considering removing recreational hunting as a legitimate reason for owning a firearm, as well as a range of other new gun reforms. And the premier will also recall parliament on Monday to pass a suite of protest restrictions.
Let’s just take a listen.
Chris Minns:
I have a responsibility to keep the community safe, to ensure that people can walk down the street without being in fear of being killed. And unfortunately, when you’ve got a terrible situation where people have been killed, mowed down in great number just because of their religious faith, I think it would be a horrible situation to see a mass demonstration. In my view, a mass demonstration on this scale would be so divisive for our community, it would light a fire that I think would be difficult to extinguish it.
Gabriella Power:
Mia, what do you make of New South Wales premier Chris Minns’ response?
Mia Schlicht:
Well, I mean, you started to talk about protests. Now? Really? Now you’re starting to worry about these protests? These protests have been going on for two years. Every single Sunday we had protesters out there chanting extremely anti-Semitic things, calling for the incitement of violence, and there’s been absolutely no leadership on the issue.
I mean, where was the premier on October 8th when we had those demonstrations outside the Opera House calling for “death to the IDF” and saying things like “gas the Jews?” Where was he then? But now we want to start talking about division in this community?
I mean, make no mistake, this is Australia’s 9/11. This is a day that we will never forget in Australia’s history. It was an attack on every single Australian here. It was our 9/11. And we’re focusing on things such as gun laws and protests. It just shows that the government here has missed the point. In all levels of government, state and federal, they’re not understanding the real problem at play here.
So if we want to talk about protesting, that’s all well and good, but we’ve almost missed that opportunity because it has been happening for two years. There has been abhorrent things being said in this community and I think they’ve missed the point.
Gabriella Power:
Absolutely. Couldn’t agree with you more.
Over in the UK, Oxford University students and activists from the group Your Party staged a protest in the city centre on Sunday chanting, “Long live the intifada.” This was held just hours after this deadly terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Australia.
Now, the rally was held in support of eight hunger strikers linked to Palestine Action, an organisation that has been prescribed as a terrorist group. Now two of Britain’s biggest police forces say that they will now be arresting protestors who chant, “Globalise the intifada” following recent terror attacks. The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police say that anyone using the slogan could face prosecution, arguing the context has changed in the wake of the Bondi attacks and growing concerns that it incites violence.
Let’s listen to this.
Mark Rowley:
We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as, “Globalise the intifada.” And those using it at future protests or in a targeted way should expect the Met or Greater Manchester Police to take immediate action. Violent acts have taken place. The context has changed. Words have meanings. Words have consequences.
Gabriella Power:
Mia, what do you make of this?
Mia Schlicht:
I mean, it’s quite shocking to me to hear him say the context has changed. In what way has the context now changed? I think their eyes have just been opened to the fact that for years when we had Jewish people around the world warning our leaders that this was coming, those warning signs were ignored. And in every instance, particularly here in Australia when advice was given to those leaders, they were kind of pushed to the side because it wasn’t politically relevant or useful to them in that moment.
So to say the context has now changed, I think is extremely insulting to all the Jewish people who have sent out those warnings.
Gabriella Power:
Mm-hmm.
Mia Schlicht:
But it also does just show that this problem with antisemitism, it’s not just a problem here in Australia, unfortunately. It is on the rise globally. And in the UK, they’ve been dealing with this problem now for a while.
And I think it is time for the left, quite frankly, to wake up. For so long, they have been warning us about right wing extremism and the problem with people on the right, and constantly the right have been held accountable for extremist groups. But where is the left? I think it’s time for the left to stand up and start calling out some of their own and saying a lot of these, they’ve gone too far. And I think they’ve been going too far for a while now, but they need to stand up and own up to that.
Now when it comes to the UK police finally taking this seriously, I think it will remain to see what they actually do because we have a police force in the UK who has been more focused on arresting people in their own homes for tweets they’ve made, which I’ve found at times, I think, relatively low in posing some kind of threat. But they’ve been more focused on policing people in their own homes rather than stopping violence on the streets.
So I’d like to see them actually crack down on that violence on the streets first and foremost, and then we’ll see whether they really have any ability to crack down on this antisemitism.
Gabriella Power:
And you’re certainly right about the left needs to wake up. Certainly far left activists, they have been either silent themselves or even anti-Semitic. But we’ll leave it there.
Mia Schlick, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs. Thank you so much for your time.
Mia Schlicht:
Thanks for having me.
This transcript with Mia Schlicht talking on The Power Hour Sky News Australia from 18 December 2025 has been edited for clarity.
