Port Arthur via Oslo to Bondi. History repeats, lessons ignored at our peril

This happens every day somewhere in the world; the killing of innocents by war mongers, mass murderers or terrorists. Being close to home affects us more. What will we learn from the Bondi tragedy? Kim Wingerei asking?

Once again, a nation mourns the tragic loss of innocent lives at the hands of violence committed by damaged, callous and ruthless men armed with assault weapons.

The Bondi massacre inevitably stirred up memories of an even worse atrocity committed by a single man in Port Arthur in 1996. For this ‘Auswegian’, this also evokes the mass murder attack carried out by another gunman in July 2011 on a small, peaceful island in a lake north of Oslo, Norway. At that time, I was visiting by chance and saying goodbye to my sick mother, who passed away a few weeks later.

Three incidents, four gunmen, 127 innocent people shot dead, 360 people physically injured; and many more – bystanders, families, and friends – will suffer from this trauma for the rest of their lives.

In Port Arthur, most of the victims were tourists and the reason for this was a personal grievance; In Oslo it was mostly young people gathering for a weekend political discussion; Jews peacefully celebrating Hanukkah, the “Festival of Lights”, in Bondi.

What distinguishes the three events is how the public reacted, how the media covered it, and how governments responded.

someone to blame

When tragedy strikes us, identifying a scapegoat is a common and understandable human behavior. Blame serves as a coping mechanism, providing the illusion of control (“if we find a culprit, we can prevent it from happening again”) and helping us unite in the face of difficulties.

Port Arthur came as a shock to a nation that believed it was immune from such events. It’s a shock made worse by the lack of a relatable motive, just a madman who has acquired weapons and knows how to use them for maximum lethal effect.

Online news was still in its infancy, and reporting was done by well-resourced newsrooms that tended to check facts first.

There was inevitable criticism about police failure, but the overwhelming response was one of universal solidarity with the victims and the blame squarely on the killer. Prime Minister Howard gave full political support to stricter gun laws and subsequent gun amnesty. How they have been watered down since then is another story.

Bondi Shooter revelations leave politicians, police and ASIO with blood on their hands

In Norway, there was a similar reaction to the mind-boggling killing spree, but calm leadership and fact-based reporting took precedence and quelled unnecessary hysteria and panic before it emerged.

A subsequent investigation found that while aware of the difficulties faced by the local police force, which rarely faced a murder investigation, let alone terrorism on a scale not seen since the Second World War, the police took too long to respond.

The Oslo perpetrator was soon revealed to be a far-right and white supremacist who loathed the very existence of Labor Party Youth League members who had gathered on the island. An enemy with strong political overtones at home, but without a following to speak of outside the dark recesses of internet chat rooms. This helped the nation cope with this situation and unite around the words of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg:

The correct response to violence is more democracy, more openness, but not naivety.

This was a sentiment also expressed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern following the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019, which left 51 Muslims dead and 89 injured. This remains the worst act of terrorism by an Australian in modern times, but people rallied around the victims; no one called for revenge against the Australians.

The immediate aftermath of the Bondi massacre already stands in stark contrast to Port Arthur, Oslo and Christchurch. The two mass murderers had barely stopped firing before the internet exploded with absolute certainty that they were Muslims shooting Jews.

This turned out to be true, but the brave man who tried to disarm one of them was also a Muslim; this was a fact ignored by many of those determined to use the tragedy to fuel the fire. Exaggerations and misinformation created by artificial intelligence were very common on social media.

The blame would be apportioned and hell would be paid. Not just by the perpetrators, but by anyone believed to be an anti-Semite, and especially by Muslims.

An enemy defined in such broad terms is not only convenient, it prepares the ground

further fueling hatred and division and shifting the narrative away from other atrocities.

Armament tragedy

It took less than a day for Benjamin Netanyahu to accuse Prime Minister Albanese of ignoring warnings that antisemitism was rising in Australia.

Much of the mainstream media howled for political blood, as did opposition politicians. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Josh Frydenberg used the stage in front of the mourning crowd to link the tragedy not only to October 7 and Hamas, but also to those who dared to march to protest Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The Bondi killers, believed to be linked to ISIS, a terrorist group known to be opposed to Hamas, have been conveniently ignored by loud voices calling for large-scale revenge and government action.

Loosening gun control has also been used to place blame on governments, and both Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns were quick to announce action on the issue. But, as Malcolm Turnbull has pointed out, history has shown that terrorism carried out by lone gunmen is a risk that legislation, intelligence agencies or the police cannot be expected to completely eliminate in a free society like ours.

Not to mention that the CIA and FBI, two of the world’s largest and most advanced intelligence and law enforcement agencies, failed to prevent 9/11, the consequences of which are still felt today, including among Muslims everywhere they travel.

Hate begets hate, and words matter. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is caught between the rock of resisting the voices of hate and the hard place of reason. For now, he appears to have chosen the soft path, legitimizing those who want to use the tragedy to advance a political agenda of further division.

But he can never do enough for the hard-liners, as evidenced by the discouraging boos heard when he was present at Sunday’s Bondi vigil.

Port Arthur paved the way for possibly life-saving gun control. By bringing a country together, Oslo strengthened the core value of democracy: openness. Bondi could lead to better gun control, but it could also lead to more invasive surveillance and policing, an unprecedented assault on free speech through the denial of the right to protest, and if Antisemitism Ambassador Jillian Segal gets her way.

The inclusion of one type of hate speech in the law on the grounds that it deserves more attention than others.

Those who ignore history will always repeat its worst lessons. Hate speech itself is not something we should be afraid of. It is how we respond to this and deal with the enemy within us that will define us, help us heal, or tear us apart further.

Albo bows to media, takes action on Israeli oppression, antisemitism and freedom of expression