If the Prime Minister had been as determined to eradicate antisemitism in Australia over the past three years as he has been to avoid this Commonwealth Royal Commission over the past three weeks, our country may not have found itself in the position we do today.
The Prime Minister’s decision to finally establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission is not an act of leadership, it is an admission that his litany of excuses have collapsed.
For weeks now, Australians watched a Prime Minister fumble and flounder while answers for victims’ families were put on hold.
Anthony Albanese relented, not because he believed a Commonwealth Royal Commission was the right thing to do, but because he was forced to do so by the Australian people.
The pleas of the families of victims, the Jewish community and the wider community have finally been heeded, but as always, Anthony Albanese has only acted when he judged it was in his political interest. His political interest is the only thing that guides him, never the national interest.
Leadership requires action, and this Prime Minister refused to act until resistance became impossible.
In the face of the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil in our history, Anthony Albanese did everything he could to stand in the way of a full and proper Commonwealth Royal Commission.
He attacked the proposal on timing.
He attacked it as being too broad.
He claimed it would platform antisemitism.
He asserted he had national security advice against holding one despite being unable to demonstrate such advice existed.
He claimed that a Royal Commission could not appropriately examine national security information.
This delay was not caution or careful consideration, it was weakness.
For weeks, he sheltered behind reviews, talking points and procedural distractions.
As pressure mounted, he lashed out.
He spoke over grieving families instead of listening to them and he lectured the media on how to report terrorism rather than confronting the failures that demanded scrutiny.
He ignored whistleblowers from within our counter-terrorism agencies who revealed they did not have the resources they needed and that assessments about the impact of antisemitism on the terror threat were being ignored.
This will forever be the Commonwealth Royal Commission Anthony Albanese was forced to have.
Few issues in Australian history have united such a broad and credible coalition against a sitting Prime Minister.
The Coalition will review the Terms of Reference released by the Prime Minister today, in consultation with the Jewish community and national security experts, to ensure no stone is left unturned and that every issue that must be addressed can be addressed.
The decision to appoint a sole Commissioner further demonstrates the Prime Minister’s failure to grasp the gravity of the issues at stake.
A single Commissioner is inadequate for an inquiry of this scale, complexity and importance.
From the outset, the Coalition has been clear that a proper Commonwealth Royal Commission required three Commissioners. One with deep judicial experience, one with national security expertise and one drawn from the Jewish community with lived experience and understanding of antisemitism.
That structure was essential to ensure credibility, balance and confidence across all affected communities.
Given the Prime Minister’s sustained opposition to a Commonwealth Royal Commission from the beginning, it is no surprise that he now seeks to narrow and limit it through its design.
This reinforces a pattern of behaviour that has defined this Prime Minister’s response from the start.
How does the Prime Minister reconcile his repeated claims that national security officials advised against holding this?
Is he now defying that advice, or was it never given?
Does he accept that Australians were deliberately misled when he and the Home Affairs Minister claimed a Royal Commission would fuel antisemitism?
Caving under pressure does not absolve this Prime Minister or his government of their failures.
Australians deserved leadership when the country was tested.
Anthony Albanese did not provide it and no delayed decision can conceal that truth.
All Australians will expect the powers of this Commonwealth Royal Commission to be exercised without bias and free of political interference, just as they expect that the Executive arm of Government be properly examined.
Only a truly thorough examination of all factors that drive antisemitism in this country will give Australians the answers they deserve. Anything less will fail us all.
So many Australians have rallied behind the Jewish community to call for a Commonwealth Royal Commission. They expect this to be done comprehensively and without fear or favour.