Anthony Albanese vows to deploy all resources against antisemitism as criticism mounts following Bondi attack | Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese said his government would devote “every resource necessary” to stamp out antisemitism in Australia after the Bondi terror attack, after envoy Jillian Segal and the Coalition accused Labor of not doing enough to combat hatred against Jewish communities.

The national cabinet was due to meet on Monday afternoon after the federal cabinet’s national security committee reconvened.

Segal, the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, said “it is not enough to raise this issue” and wants the recommendations he submitted to the government in July to be urgently accelerated.

Albanese described the alleged attack on Bondi beach by a Sydney father and son, which killed at least 16 people and sent dozens to hospital, as “pure evil”. But opposition leader Sussan Ley claimed “antisemitism in Australia has been left to fester” by the Labor government, while former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg accused political leaders of “little more than empty words”.

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“We have seen a clear lack of leadership in keeping Australian Jews safe,” Ley said on Monday morning.

“We have a government that sees antisemitism not as an evil to be eliminated, but as a problem to be managed…”

World leaders expressed horror at Sunday’s attack, which police treated as a terrorist incident. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the Albanese government had “done nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia, nothing to curb the cancer cells growing in your country”.

Asked about Monday’s comments, Albanese did not respond directly but said “this is a moment for national unity.”

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” he said.

“Today the Jewish community is suffering. Today, all Australians are embracing them and saying we are with you. We will do whatever it takes to eliminate antisemitism. It is a scourge and we will eliminate it together… We will devote every resource necessary to respond to it.”

NSW premier Chris Minns called for a “strong and unequivocal rejection of all forms of antisemitism, whether destructive, horrific acts of violence or online postings.”

Speaking in Sydney, Ley demanded that the government implement all of Segal’s recommendations; These called for stricter legislation on antisemitic behavior and protest activities, stricter screening of visa applications, cuts to funding to universities and arts institutions that fail to take action against antisemitism, and a plan to “monitor media outlets to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.

The government is still considering Segal’s recommendations, as well as its response to separate recommendations from anti-Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik.

Ley criticized the lack of tougher action against student protests and said the Coalition would support recalling parliament to pass tougher laws or devote more resources to the security of Jewish community sites.

“We have a government that sees antisemitism not as an evil to be eliminated, but as a problem to be managed,” he said. “Everything must change from now on when it comes to how governments respond.”

Segal said Albanese and Minns were right to condemn antisemitism but demanded more action.

“It’s not enough to announce this. We need a range of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, community activity in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders. This has to be a whole-of-society approach,” he told Guardian Australia.

“I think the government needs to accelerate what it needs to do and I hope to meet with the prime minister and members of the government to convey to them that the plan has been accelerated.”

Albanese said Sunday night in Segal’s report that the government was “continuing to work on all these issues” but that the government was considering additional funding for security.

“We continued to work with the leaders of the Jewish community. We continued to seek all recommendations from the security agencies to put in place special measures, and we will continue to do so,” he said.

Segal compared the scale of the attack to the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996 and said police and the government needed to address firearms laws.

“The Prime Minister talked about embracing Jewish members of society. I think that’s great, but we need more than just embracing them. We need a range of actions to tell the rest of society how unacceptable hateful actions are.”

Frydenberg, who is said to be considering returning to federal politics after losing his seat in the 2022 elections, said: “Everything needs to change from here.

“The law must be enforced. Those who spew hatred must no longer be tolerated. We, as a country, cannot continue as we have done so far. Our leaders must now finally stand up, take responsibility for what happened to them, and close this shameful page in our nation’s history,” he said.

Minns said the NSW government was considering changes to gun laws after police found one of the attackers had a firearms license and was in possession of six guns.

“I made it clear last night that we will take every step possible to keep our community safe and look at law reform along the way. And this is unacceptable.”