Australia’s indolent government, dysfunctional opposition, and leftie media failed us over Bondi. By Chris Kenny in The Australian.
That our entire political class could be so negligent is deeply worrying, especially given that with a largely complicit media we are left with no functioning means of accountability.
Guilty, guilty, guilty:
Federal and state governments, law enforcement agencies and most media could not have moved on more quickly from their culpability over the Islamist terror attack at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah event last month. Rather than examine their failings, they have busied themselves with communal mourning and cloaking themselves in the stories of Bondi’s heroes.
Despite more than two years of warnings about rising levels of antisemitism and Islamist extremism, and constant pleas for more decisive action, Anthony Albanese not only did the minimum possible to stand up against this hatred but, encouraged by the ABC and others, he fanned the flames by demonising Israel. Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong even tried to assuage Hamas by recognising the non-existent state of Palestine, a dangerous move that rewarded terrorism and therefore could only encourage extremists.
This is the most shameful dereliction of duty in national security and social cohesion in our nation’s history, and as our longest serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has said, the worst foreign policy shift of the post-war era. …
What the opposition should have been doing:
The pivotal lines and the arguments had been laid out for the opposition by former deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg when he paid his respects at Bondi last month.
“We, as a Jewish community, have been abandoned, and left alone by our government. Our governments have failed every Australian when it comes to fighting hate and antisemitism,” Frydenberg said. “Our Prime Minister … has allowed Australia to be radicalised on his watch.”
The former treasurer rattled off a list of threats and escalations over two years. …
That is it — that is the undeniable indictment of the Albanese government that should have been the mantra of the opposition.
Imagine if the Liberals had presided over Bondi:
If an identical series of events had unfolded under a Coalition prime minister there is little doubt he or she would have been pushed close to resignation by now. Labor and its media mates, quite rightly, would have piled on the pressure over warnings ignored and pleas denied.
Remember Scott Morrison was scarified by Labor and the media for making the obvious point that he could not physically extinguish bushfires: “I don’t hold a hose, mate.”
Yet Albanese spent 26 months resisting demands for action against rising levels of antisemitism and Islamist extremism before the Bondi Beach massacre finally jolted him into some sense of urgency. …
Our midwit, leftie journalists:
The reason journalists are not clamouring for Albanese’s scalp is because they have been just as delinquent on Israel and antisemitism. The publicly funded media in particular has spent the past two years demonising Israel, regurgitating Hamas propaganda, underplaying the atrocities of October 7 and downplaying the scourges of antisemitism and Islamist extremism. …
[The ABC’s] global affairs editor, Laura Tingle, insists the Bondi Islamist terrorist attack had “nothing to do with religion”. Tingle and other ABC staff, including David Marr and Louise Milligan, joined a boycott of the Adelaide Writers Week in solidarity with Randa Abdel-Fattah, who publicly celebrated the slaughter of Israelis in the October 7 atrocities.
Media outlets, especially the ABC, have been bad actors in the Gaza conflict every day since October 7. As such, they too are answerable for the hatred and division that culminated in the bloodied sands of Bondi.
Performative mourning, new gun laws, talk of Nazis … the left and the media have done everything but come to grips with the real culprits — Islamic terror and themselves.
