Albanese, at crucial moment for his leadership, steps up to the plate on antisemitism

• Follow our live coverage of the Bondi shooting here.

Angry about the Bondi massacre and – almost – contrite, Anthony Albanese has laid out a top-to-bottom plan to make the country safe again for Australian Jews.

He finally stepped up to the plate in Canberra on Thursday after days of criticism from Jewish leaders and the Coalition that he had not taken antisemitism seriously.

Jacinda Ardern was able to embrace the traumatised Muslim survivors of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, but Albanese has not been able to take the first step in uniting the nation by publicly putting his arms around the angry Jewish community at Bondi.

His relationship with Jewish leaders has been damaged since October 7, 2023, as Labor hardened its position against Israel’s actions in Gaza and when top Jewish figures aligned with the Coalition under former leader Peter Dutton.

It has not been clear if Albanese could transcend the moment and rise above the rancour, as former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Josh Frydenberg controversially put paid to a bipartisan response even before any victims had been buried.

The prime minister acknowledged on Thursday that there was “much more” the country had to do to combat hostility towards Jews.

For the first time since Sunday, Albanese made a point of saying he felt angry about the terrorist attack.

He stopped short of apologising and at times spoke in vague terms and generalities. But for a leader who does not often admit missteps, Albanese found the language to tell Jewish Australians he could hear them.

“Governments aren’t perfect, I’m not perfect,” he said. “I have done my best to respond ... Anyone in this position would regret not doing more, and any inadequacies.

“I, of course, acknowledge that more could have been done, and I accept my responsibility for my part in that as prime minister of Australia.”

Asked why he had not been at victims’ funerals, Albanese said he respected the wishes of families, suggesting he was not wanted at the events, even as he arranged to meet mourners in private.

Beyond the optics of regret, the shock of the worst killing of Jews globally since October 7 spurred him to endorse a radical move to override free-speech considerations and crack down on Islamist hate preachers.

Along with the implementation of the long-delayed Segal report, many in the Jewish community will wonder why these measures weren’t in place sooner.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke put it well when he said that “individuals have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanising … but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence”.

After years of debate about whether such laws would curtail freedom of expression, Burke suggested the gravity of Bondi had tipped the scales in favour of imposing the will of the majority, declaring the government was moving into “new legal territory”.

The Bondi crisis has handed Labor a powerful mandate, marking a step change from a decade ago when many in the Coalition wanted to water down racial discrimination laws.

While the rabid antisemitism of some radical preachers is plain as day, those working on the laws will also need to work out what to do about hardcore online anti-Zionists. Much of the pro-Palestine sentiment has been focused on Israel’s military campaign, which was deemed a genocide by the United Nations. But as the prime minister said on Thursday, some elements have crossed a line into bigotry.

Education Minister Jason Clare said antisemitism on campus would be targeted by regulators “when unis don’t”.

David Gonski, behind the Gillard-era Gonski school reforms, will start meeting with a new education taskforce on Friday morning to figure out how to educate students about the Holocaust.

Howard and Frydenberg have fiercely criticised Albanese this week, breaking convention on keeping politics out of such tragedies. The prime minister has opened himself up to some of the barbs. His full-court press on Thursday was designed to prove his government was serious about antisemitism.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley can keep asking legitimate questions of Albanese’s record, but she will come under pressure to rise above the vitriol directed at Labor and back the proposed measures on funding reform and hate speech.

Her sharp remarks on Thursday, demanding Albanese recall parliament and even stronger measures on citizenship and counterterrorism, suggest the messy political fight over Bondi won’t end soon.

More Bondi terror coverage

• Moment by moment: How the horrifying Bondi attack unfolded
• Bondi shooter held gun licence: The prime minister will propose strengthening Australian gun laws
• Watch: Bondi gunman tells bystanders to move away, while shooting at Hanukkah crowd
• Who are the Bondi gunmen? Bondi shooters visited Philippines weeks before beach massacre

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