1 month ago
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to call a royal commission into the Bondi Beach shootings is a belated recognition of the community’s desire for a wider inquiry that has caused much unnecessary pain.
The Herald has been at the forefront of calls for a federal commission as the prime minister ignored the pleas of victims’ families, the Jewish community and hundreds of public figures.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls a royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion after three weeks of calls for him to do so.Credit: AAPIMAGE
Albanese has finally done the right thing.
It is not weak to change your mind. That is what leaders do. But due to his obfuscation, complaints about backflips and weakness have continued. It is now time for the naysayers to get behind the process and let the commission do its work.
Ongoing and unseemly brawling over the establishment of the commission has also created a monstrous development in Australian politics: judicial appointment by public acclaim.
Word had hardly got out on Wednesday that Albanese was considering Virginia Bell, a former High Court justice, as commissioner before the pile-on started.
Former Coalition treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Jewish community had “serious concerns” about her appointment and Jewish leaders involved in discussions with the government reportedly did not want Bell. Coalition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam slammed the government for appointing someone who “may potentially be in complete opposition to community views”. Frydenberg subsequently backed Bell after her appointment was announced.
Such vitriolic and partisan attacks on potential judicial appointments are out of line.
In Australia, it has been our habit to prefer our judiciary to be independent and above reproach, not the preferred personality of special interest groups or individuals.
Of course, people are free to question the judiciary. That’s democracy. But the mulling over and undermining of Bell’s credentials for political reasons by federal politicians who, frankly, should know better, is the beginning of a slippery slope best avoided.
It risks making normal the sort of repugnant stigma Donald Trump has used to survive in office by compromising the US judicial system, with multiple appointments made along political and ideological lines.
The Coalition suffered in the election for holding Trump as a leading light and Albanese, a leader famed as a practitioner of Machiavellian politics where pragmatism rules the day, was still making them pay until he wasted much political capital by dithering over the royal commission.
He gave Sussan Ley her first winning hand since she became opposition leader.
She and the Coalition championed the royal commission early and planned to compel the government to initiate the inquiry when parliament resumed next month. Now, Ley says the Coalition’s “preferred model” was not to have a single commissioner running the royal commission.
The Coalition should rest on its laurels. The squabbling and point-scoring should end, too. Pollsters suggest Australian voters hate nothing more than politicians perceived to be making mileage from tragedy.
Bondi Beach showed the fragility of our social cohesion. Now, political cohesion, not division, is needed. The federal royal commission is our best chance to learn how it happened, to prevent more terror and to ensure no Australians are forced to live in fear.
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