Once untouchable, Albanese ends the year under siege

Anthony Albanese appeared untouchable in November, when Canberra was consumed by conversations about the Coalition’s internal feuds. But the political environment feels markedly different now.

Earlier this month, Albanese’s judgment was called into question as he let an expenses saga run for more than a week before reluctantly seeking advice on family travel perks.

Four Labor MPs, speaking to this masthead on the proviso they were not named, said Albanese had reacted in a clumsy, uninspired and slightly stubborn manner after the Bondi terror attack and during the Anika Wells blow-up, recalling memories of the rockier periods of his first term when Labor feared it might lose office.

“There’s a sense he’s been treated unfairly by some sections of the media after Bondi, but it’s pretty obvious his leadership has been lacking and the Jewish community isn’t listening to him,” one MP said.

A summer Albanese hoped would be spent at the cricket and the tennis will now be dominated by the fallout from Sunday’s terrorist attack. Nobody can know yet if the government’s disastrous December will be seen in the polls, but the atmosphere has changed and the Albanese ascendancy has been jolted.

For an opposition left in a dishevelled state after the last election, putting a harsh spotlight on Albanese is worth more than any reputational benefit gained from maintaining decorum and convention, so bipartisanship after Bondi has been controversially sidelined.

The Coalition wants this to be Albanese’s “I don’t hold a hose” moment. He has not been on holiday, but he has been slow to respond to a report from the envoy to combat antisemitism, which contains some contentious recommendations, that he has had since July. On Thursday, he made belated moves to counter antisemitism, knowing many Australians would not blame him for Bondi but that action was needed.

On Friday, he announced a landmark national gun buyback and brushed off calls from the Coalition and the Jewish community for a royal commission into the flare-up in antisemitism that could expose his government.

“All I’m focused on is continuing to work,” Albanese said in Canberra. He offered no suggestion on alternative federal or state probes into either antisemitism or how authorities failed to stop the attack.

The prime minister used the same press conference to emphasise new videos more firmly tying the Bondi killers to Islamic State.

“This has been around for a long period of time,” he said, pointing out that Islamic extremism was not new and attempting to de-link the massacre from the antisemitism debate.

When asked if Islamic extremism was the nation’s biggest security threat, as news emerged about the religious motivations of men on the way to Bondi, Albanese placed jihadists alongside other bad actors.

“I want to deal with all of the threats, whether it be extremist perversions of Islam leading to support for the ideology promoted by ISIS, whether it be also concerned about the issue of sovereign citizens killing police … I’m concerned about neo-Nazis,” he said.

Albanese is right to say there are myriad bad actors in the world. However, one of his MPs said the prime minister should have spoken in black-and-white terms from at least Monday about the scourge of fundamentalism.

The prime minister will never match the demands of right-wingers, some of whom are plainly bigoted towards Muslims, on how he should speak about extremists at the fringes of the Muslim community. But some MPs in his own camp believe he has sometimes avoided taking values-based stances on antisemitism for fear of angering Muslim voters in Labor seats, a claim the prime minister would deny.

Albanese showed a hint of contrition on Thursday about Labor’s response to the rise in bigotry towards Jews. Part of what has frustrated Jewish leaders is their view that Albanese has tended to create false equivalence.

In response to a question on antisemitism on Friday, he said: “Some of these things are not new. James Saleam, [white nationalist organisation] National Action [founder], tried to kill Eddie Funde from the African National Congress. When I was a student, I was a candidate against that reprehensible fascist at Sydney University in 1983. This has been around a long period of time. Issues have escalated and we need to take action against all of them.”

The government has taken big steps this week to crack down on hate preachers, which no Coalition government has previously done. But if his task over summer is to prove he is a statesman capable of holding the country together, deflection, false equivalence and delay will not get him far.

More coverage on the Bondi terror attack

• Bondi shooter held gun licence: The prime minister will propose strengthening Australian gun laws
• Who are the alleged Bondi gunmen? On Sunday morning, father and son shooters told family they were going fishing
• Bondi hero Ahmed ‘in good spirits’: Ahmed al Ahmed, father of two young girls, is in hospital recovering from gunshot wounds
• The victims: 10-year-old Matilda is the youngest victim. What we know about the Bondi terror victims so far

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