Review slammed amid calls for major probe into massacre
Demands are growing for a federal royal commission to investigate Australia’s deadliest terror attack after the Prime Minister announced plans for an internal review into possible security failures.
Anthony Albanese announced on Sunday a review into the ability of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to keep Australians safe following the Bondi massacre, which left 15 people dead and scores seriously injured.
But political opponents and prominent Jewish figures said the investigation did not go far enough and that a federal royal commission was needed to give investigators the broadest powers to examine the course and cause of the attack.
Mr Albanese instead backed the NSW investigation into an Islamic State-inspired attack on Hanukkah celebrations by a father and son.
Former intelligence chief Dennis Richardson will lead the federal government’s internal investigation into “whether law enforcement and intelligence agencies have the right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements to keep Australians safe”.
“Last Sunday’s ISIS-inspired brutality reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our country,” Mr Albanese said.
“Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond.”
The review by agencies such as ASIO and the Australian Federal Police will be led by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and handed over to the government by the end of April.
But Labor has been criticized for not launching a wider investigation that could have looked into the events leading up to the attack.
Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a leading member of the Jewish community, said the reviews were “nonsense” and that the Commonwealth should lead with the most comprehensive, robust royal commission possible.
“Your departmental review will not get to the bottom of the radicalization and problems in our country that have been allowed to explode on your watch,” he said.
Mr Frydenberg said the NSW-based royal commission was not good enough when the terrorist threat was not limited to that state.
“The tsunami of hate is not just an attack on Australian Jews, it is a threat to all Australians,” he said.
David Littleproud, the leader of the national contest, said he believed Mr Albanese had stayed away from the federal royal commission because he was afraid of the truth.
“We have to look at the failures of the decisions taken at the political level, at the intelligence level,” he said.
“And most of these institutions are at the federal level.”
Mr Littleproud acknowledged the failures could date back to before Labor returns to power in 2022 and welcomed any potential investigation that would also examine shortcomings under previous coalition governments.
Independent Allegra Spendici, whose electorate includes Bondi, said the terror attack required a thorough and independent investigation to ensure such a devastating incident was never repeated again.
A royal commission based in NSW would not have the power to properly examine federal agencies such as ASIO.
One of the attackers, Naveed Akram, came to ASIO’s attention because of his dealings with others in 2019, when the coalition was in power.
ASIO chief executive Mike Burgess welcomed the assessments and said the intelligence agency would “own” any mistakes and learn from them.
“ASIO is not all-seeing and all-knowing,” he said.
“Tragically, in this case, we had no knowledge of the attack before it happened.”
But Mr Burgess said that did not necessarily mean there had been an intelligence failure.
