Family of Lindt cafe victim call for Bondi royal commission, ‘appalled’ by PM invoking siege

The family of a Lindt cafe siege victim has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to launch a federal royal commission into the Bondi massacre, saying they were appalled he had invoked the cafe attack to avoid holding a national inquiry.

The family of Katrina Dawson, who was killed in the siege in 2014, said “painful personal experience” showed them that a state-based royal commission would not have the power to uncover what went wrong leading up to the Bondi attack, in which 15 innocent people were killed.

“We are appalled that the prime minister, seeking to avoid a much-needed royal commission into antisemitism and Islamic extremism, would say that we don’t need a royal commission because there wasn’t one into the Lindt siege,” Dawson’s parents, Sandy and Jane, and her brother, Angus, said in a statement.

Calls for a Commonwealth royal commission have persisted despite the prime minister insisting a state-based royal commission, the antisemitism envoy’s report and a federal inquiry into law enforcement processes would deliver the fastest results.

Albanese said on Tuesday that a federal royal commission had not been called for after other shootings.

“There was no royal commission called by the Howard government after Port Arthur. There was no royal commission called by the Abbott government after the Lindt siege,” Albanese said.

“We provided on both those occasions, as the opposition – and I was a part of that opposition – we provided support for national unity at that time.”

Doubling down on comments on Thursday, Albanese said he was “concerned” if his comments caused offence to the Dawson family, but he had “simply made the point” that federal commissions had not previously been called.

The prime minister said the federal government and intelligence agencies would co-operate fully with the NSW royal commission, and the previously announced review of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies by former defence secretary Dennis Richardson would “be important to identify any gaps”.

But Dawson’s family cast doubt over the authority of a state-based commission.

The family accused federal agencies of avoiding accountability during the Lindt siege inquest, and said they feared the NSW royal commission into the Bondi attack would also lack the power to compel law enforcement to co-operate.

“During the [Lindt cafe] inquest, the Australian Federal Police and ASIO repeatedly relied on extensive legal representation, claims of secrecy and privilege, and procedural resistance that a state coroner simply had no power to penetrate,” the Dawson family said.

“That lawyering up did not advance the search for truth. It blocked answers to legitimate questions, prolonged proceedings, and inflicted additional and unnecessary pain on families who were already grieving and seeking accountability from those charged with keeping Australians safe.”

The Dawson family said the Bondi massacre could not be equated with the Lindt siege, which was “one devastating incident” rather than a series.

“The Bondi massacre is just the latest of so many attacks on Jewish Australians that have taken place over the last two years and two months. And there are now more anti-Jewish demonstrations taking place. Our country has become divided and we must do everything possible to heal that division,” they said.

Opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser, who knew Katrina Dawson from practising law in Sydney, said her family’s intervention was extraordinary.

“The Dawson family are very private people. The fact that they have taken an unprecedented step of entering the public discussion about having a royal commission speaks volumes,” Leeser said.

“If the prime minister is not going to listen to the opposition in terms of their calls for a royal commission, if he’s not going to listen to … over 170 of Australia’s top lawyers, his own backbenchers Mike Freelander and Ed Husic, maybe, just maybe, he will listen to the family of Katrina Dawson.”

Dawson and Tori Johnson were killed in December 2014 after gunman Man Haron Monis had held 17 people hostage for hours in the Lindt cafe in the Sydney CBD. Monis was shot dead by police after he had shot Johnson, and Dawson was hit by shrapnel from a police bullet.

Monis asked for an Islamic State flag as part of his demands during the siege. But his exact motivations were questioned as, at the time of the attack, Monis was before the courts for a string of sexual assault offences and for being an accessory to the murder of his former wife.

The NSW coronial inquest after the siege investigated the police response and Monis’ bail history.

Meanwhile, former judges and senior barristers have continued to add their names to an open letter calling for a Commonwealth royal commission.

The list, which had grown to 174 former senior members of the Australian Bar by Wednesday, includes former Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop, former NSW Chief Justice James Spigelman and former Federal Court Judge Ronald Sackville.

“A federal royal commission … would be a constructive exercise in national self-examination,” the open letter said.

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