PM considering backdown after Bondi attack

Albanese said he was “talking to New South Wales” about how the state-based investigation would be conducted.

“We are engaging with the community as well as the New South Wales government to ensure that we are doing everything necessary to ensure that we rebuild social cohesion in this country.”

The Prime Minister did not rule out launching an investigation or reiterate his previous objections that it would take too long and undermine national unity.

Albanese may change his position by expanding the Richardson review or launching a joint investigation with NSW, but sources believe he is more likely to set up a royal commission, the highest form of official inquiry.

Reports of the Prime Minister’s shift in thinking followed a shift in language from cabinet ministers Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Health Secretary Mark Butler, who stressed they respected the many calls for a royal commission to be established.

In a statement released after Albanese spoke to the media, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley welcomed the apparent change of heart but said “words are no longer enough” and called on the prime minister to accept the Coalition’s draft terms of reference for a commission.

“The Prime Minister has delayed, diverted and sidestepped those most affected for too long. If he acts now, he should do so according to the victims and families, not according to his own political timetable,” Ley said.

On Tuesday, former Labor leader and army colonel Mike Kelly held a press conference in Canberra to warn that only a federal royal commission could give law enforcement officers the legal protection they need to tell the truth about what went wrong in the lead-up to the Bondi Beach massacre.

A co-convenor of the Labor Friends of Israel group called on Albanese to reverse course and launch a national inquiry that would cover both the attack and antisemitism, bringing together families of Bondi victims, national and state Jewish community groups, more than 200 senior members of the Australian bar, more than 100 captains of industry, the Business Council of Australia, the Law Council of Australia, Catholic bishops and leading sports stars.

Former defense materiel minister Labor Party IDs sign open letterHe said on Tuesday that Albanese should take the opportunity to listen to what MPs hear from their constituents As Parliament returns in the coming weeks.

“The government can then come out and say: Look, we heard what the community has to say. We saw this new information and decided to act now,” he told reporters.

“And we’ll give them all the credit in the world for accepting that. We don’t want to attack anyone here. We just want our country to be safe.”

Kelly confirmed Labor figures, who did not want to comment publicly because of their current or former positions within the party, had privately lobbied the prime minister to reverse course.

Albanese has rejected calls for a federal royal commission in several press conferences, saying it would be lengthy, divisive and risk duplicating work already underway.

Kelly questioned the government’s assertion that there was no need for further investigation because many details of the case were known.

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“We have heard comments that there are no terrorist cells that have been uncovered or that they are lone actors, but to me that points to a misunderstanding of how terrorism works today and the disaggregated nature of terrorism, how people are groomed, how people are recruited, how they are given the ability to acquire weapons, how they are empowered and empowered to develop improvised explosive devices.”

Kelly also warned that federal agencies and their staff would be reluctant to “open the kimono fully” to the NSW royal commission because it did not offer the same legal protections as a federal inquiry.

“I know there are Commonwealth officials who will not want to speak fully and openly unless they have the legal protection of a Commonwealth royal commission.”