As recriminations in Canberra grow, Chris Minns has what Anthony Albanese wants

NSW Premier Chris Minns typically takes every opportunity to sledge the member for Vaucluse, Kellie Sloane, on the floors of parliament. But on Monday, after recalling MPs to push through new terror laws in the aftermath of the Bondi shooting, Minns paid tribute to his opponent.

“[The opposition] have worked very hard at making as much of these changes as bipartisan as possible, so I am not going to criticise anyone,” he said.

It was the kind of bipartisan spirit that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese alluded to wistfully at his press conference on Monday, when he made mention of how the Liberal, Nationals and Labor leaders united on gun reform after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, and the way he leant opposition support to former prime minister Scott Morrison during the pandemic.

“This is not a time for partisanship. This is a time for national unity. This is a time for the country to come together,” Albanese said. “That’s what happens.”

Except it hasn’t this time. While NSW politics has transcended partisanship in the last week – Minns and Sloane laid flowers together at Bondi last Monday – the federal debate has descended into the kind of politicking that many voters revile.

In a sign of the bitterness, there is even disagreement over precisely when it was, in the torrid timeline of the past eight days, that the prospect of bipartisanship dissolved and who’s to blame.

Albanese says he spoke with Ley after the terror attack on December 14, and she put out a statement offering her support to his government. “I spoke with her again on Monday morning. We offered briefings. She received those full briefings,” Albanese said last Friday. “People can make their own assessments about what has happened since.”

Ley’s office disputes that narrative. They say the prime minister went to Bondi to lay flowers last Monday morning without letting them know, passing over the opportunity to share a moment of unity like that displayed by the NSW leaders. They say they received one ASIO security briefing last Monday afternoon, and have heard nothing from the prime minister since.

“Bipartisanship does not mean the opposition acting as a rubber stamp,” Ley said in a statement on Monday afternoon. “At no point has the prime minister sought to genuinely engage the opposition in his approach. He has not shared plans, invited collaboration or built consensus. Instead, he has announced measures late and demanded agreement.”

Whenever the splinter point occurred, it has only widened.

The Coalition has leant in to this, mounting a fierce political attack on the government’s record that has veered into personal territory. Ley took it up a notch on Monday, with an extraordinary swipe at Foreign Minister Penny Wong, whom she accused of not shedding a tear over Bondi.

Albanese hasn’t said much about the opposition, so he can’t stand accused of fuelling the febrile environment with his words. (On Monday, he made a point of saying he was deliberately bowing out of partisan commentary.)

But the problem for Albanese is what’s gone unsaid. His early response to the massacre did not cut through. Paired with the prime minister’s deep unpopularity in the Jewish community, this has created a vacuum of authority at a crucial moment.

It was emphasised on Sunday night, at the Bondi vigil, when Minns was applauded while Albanese was jeered. It has paved the way for Ley to step in with salient lines on federal failures, even if they’ve been delivered unpalatably at times.

The latest manifestation is the debate over a federal royal commission. The opposition wants one into both antisemitism and the circumstances that led two gunmen to open fire on innocent people at a Hanukkah celebration, with Jews their target.

The issue is not inherently partisan: Minns will hold one at a state level and, on Monday, federal Labor MPs Mike Freelander and Ed Husic broke ranks to say they also supported a national inquiry.

Ley proffered it as an opportunity for unity. “I invite the prime minister to sit down with me immediately to refine and finalise these terms of reference so we can establish a royal commission,” she said on Monday. “This is a good faith offer to work together on a bipartisan basis.”

The prime minister has rejected it. Not without reason: he says royal commissions drag on for years and more urgent action is needed. But for the third time in eight days, he was calling a press conference in the prime minister’s courtyard to try and regain control of the narrative.

This time, he did so with more contrition. “A lot of people in the community are hurting and angry, and some of that anger was directed towards me, and I understand that,” he said of Sunday night’s vigil. “I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I’m prime minister. And I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced.”

Albanese will hope it is finally enough to close the chapter on this political debate over Christmas. But it won’t be in the bipartisan spirit he spoke about.

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