Frydenberg calls Home Affairs Minister Burke ‘weak’ amid royal commission dispute

Speaking in Bondi on Wednesday, Frydenberg made eight recommendations to the government to tackle antisemitism, including the establishment of a royal commission into antisemitism. But the move was rejected by Home Secretary Tony Burke, who said it would slow progress.

Also speaking 7.30Burke said: “The last thing I want is delays to the royal commission… We need to do everything right to make sure we keep people safe and we need to do everything to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“I would like to remind you that after Lindt [Cafe Siege]It was the same approach taken after Port Arthur. “You don’t want delays to the royal commission, the priority should be: What measures are we taking to keep people safe?”

Finance Minister Jim Chalmers backed Burke’s stance, saying: “We want our agencies to focus 100 per cent on the investigation” and said the work of police and intelligence forces would inform the government’s “further necessary steps”.

“We don’t want them to be delayed or deterred by a royal commission. Everyone’s focus, including the agencies involved here, should be on the investigation and getting to the bottom of what happened here,” Chalmers told ABC Radio National on Thursday.

The sentiment was echoed by Labour’s most high-profile Jewish MP, former attorney general Mark Dreyfuss, who said the royal commission was “not what is needed right now” after being involved in 10 commissions.

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Dreyfus told the ABC on Thursday: “What is needed now is more action… We will make sure that every resource needed is spent to ensure that Australia is again a place where Jews can feel safe, because that is not now.”

Speaking on Thursday morning, Frydenberg said Burke was “weak” and “full of excuses”.

Frydenberg told Seven’s: “The home secretary has been delaying for two and a half years. I don’t know what he’s talking about. At the end of the day, we have a weak home secretary. We have a home secretary full of excuses. We need a home secretary who is strong and full of solutions. That’s the problem we face.” Sunrise.

Frydenberg said: “The people in charge are not up to the task and he cannot continue with excuses. I don’t know what he can hide from the royal commission.”

Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson echoed Frydenberg’s comments and said he was “absolutely stunned” by the government’s reticence to set up a royal commission.

“First of all, you can take action and investigate at the same time. Secondly, all the Albanian government has done for the last two years is delay. So for them to use that as an excuse to not get to the bottom of how this happened, I think it’s a disgrace,” Paterson told ABC Radio National.

“This is the worst terrorist attack in Australian history. We’ve had royal commissions into much more trivial matters than this and I think this is the minimum we should expect from the government.”

Paterson is a member of the Coalition’s new antisemitism task force, which was established this week. The task force was scheduled to meet with special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, on Wednesday night, but the meeting was rescheduled.

More news on the Bondi terror

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