If the Prime Minister didn’t know it before last night, he certainly does now: those mourning the Bondi attack blame him personally for allowing antisemitic hatred to foment, and they now loathe him because of that.
The boos that rang out when Albo arrived and departed from the beachside vigil spoke volumes. The rejection of his offer to speak was a deliberate snub.
If the PM wanted to kid himself that this was all some sort of anti-Labor attitude that’s developed during a crisis, last night dispelled that too. The standing ovation Labor’s NSW Premier Chris Minns received was in stark contrast to Albo’s treatment.
This is personal. Albo is the problem, not Labor.
An overnight Resolve poll revealing a collapse in Albo’s personal support highlights that the anger and loathing directed his way isn’t limited to the Jewish community. Many other Australians feel the same way. Albo has let us all down.
He’ll probably recover his standing over time. In politics, the dogs bark but the caravan usually moves on. And the opposition hasn’t exactly got its act together as an alternative government anyway. But for now, at least, the PM is persona non grata – as he should be.
The boos at the Bondi vigil were the sounds of a community concluding that Albo hadn’t merely failed to stop a crisis from getting worse. He spent too long managing the optics instead of confronting it with the urgency it demanded — arrogantly dismissing fears.
Bondi didn’t emerge from nowhere. It landed on top of two years of rising tensions, public rallies, ugly slogans and a grinding sense in parts of the Jewish community that they were being asked to endure a new normal: extra security, extra fear, extra vigilance and very little certainty that the country’s leader understood the scale of what was taking hold.
A rain-soaked Anthony Albanese is seen leaving the Bondi massacre vigil with his wife, Jodie Haydon, on Sunday
Albanese was heckled upon arriving at the event, and booed when his name was announced at the ceremony itself
I live not far from Bondi. Last night, police and security were everywhere, stationed in front of Jewish schools, aged care facilities and places of worship. It’s a part of Sydney now forced to live in fear, because of profound failures ahead of time. Jewish friends of mine have had their homes vandalised. I knew one of the victims from last Sunday’s attack. Albo’s disregard of rising hate and extremism had had real consequences for the community in which I live.
Jillian Segal’s antisemitism plan, delivered to Albo months before the attack, hadn’t even received a formal government response by the time the terrorists struck. She was issuing warnings with extreme urgency, but Albo’s attention was elsewhere. Unfortunately, the government didn’t seem to care about the issues that are now front and centre when caring might have made a difference.
The contrast between the PM and Minns was on clear display at St Mary’s Cathedral during the week. At the interfaith service, Rabbi Benjamin Elton delivered a blunt assessment: antisemitism in Australia had ‘run riot’ and what had been done to address it ‘has been insufficient’. Words well said.
The congregation applauded, Minns applauded, Albanese did not. He couldn’t bring himself to. Instead he sat there, hands clasped together, stone faced. How dare he be criticised or truths be called out. Albo hasn’t joined the bandwagon at that point in time, perhaps unaware of the backlash that was brewing against him.
Leaders are allowed to be solemn, but when the room rises to endorse a hard truth and the PM visibly can’t bring himself to join in, people don’t see that as silent dignity. They see it as him being out of touch. More concerned not to offend constituencies in safe Labor seats, perhaps, who might not agree that antisemitism has ‘run riot’. Or was he upset at being criticised for ‘insufficient’ action?
Then we had the funerals. Minns attended all of them, which he was loudly applauded for doing from the stage at the Sunday vigil. In sharp contrast Albo didn’t attend any, his office using the excuse that he wasn’t invited. Neither was Minns, incidentally. Politicians rarely are. Unsurprisingly, grieving families have other things on their minds. The protocol is for politicians to reach out if they wish to pay their respects, which is what Minns did. Albo decided not to. A telling contrast to be sure.
If the PM wants to know why in the eyes of many the boos were deserved, he should start with the simple fact that his approach has too often treated antisemitism as a communications problem, rather than a real world concern.
And yes, some of the anger is sharpened by the broader context of how federal Labor has handled the Israel-Gaza conflict domestically. Albo formally recognised the State of Palestine in September. He justified it as momentum builder towards a two state solution, insisting there would be ‘no role for Hamas’. As if Albo can hold any sway whatsoever to ensure that stays the case.
A sign that would send chills up the spines of Labor MPs: A Bondi local put ‘Welcome to Albo’s Australia’ in their window, in the wake of the massacre
Closer to home, Labor figures have been willing to lend legitimacy to protest movements that have, at various points in time, been polluted by extremist imagery and rhetoric.
A number of Labor MPs publicly defied Minns by supporting and attending the Harbour Bridge march in August. Across the country, police and courts have been wrestling with the appearance of terrorist symbols at rallies, including a Hamas flag at a Brisbane protest. Hezbollah flags have appeared at other rallies. Pictures of Iran’s supreme leader too, and even chants to ‘globalise the intifada’.
No honest observer claims that most marchers are terrorists, or supporters of terrorism. Of course they aren’t. That’s not the argument. The argument is that Albo and parts of his inner sanctum have been far too comfortable occupying a grey zone: loudly empathising with Palestine in the wake of the barbarism of the Hamas attack on innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023. Now we have been attacked too, at one of the country’s most iconic locations.
This is why the Bondi boos last night landed so loudly.
