Albanese’s dithering on terror

No comments

We warned that Albanese’s obsession with domestic optics undermined Australia’s national security.

From May to September 2024, we warned that Albanese’s obsession with trendy domestic optics was dangerously undermining Australia’s national security, both at home and abroad. We highlighted how his preference for ‘de-escalation’ rhetoric in the face of repeated grey-zone provocations such as China’s People’s Liberation Army harassments of Australian Defence Force personnel was inviting escalation and eroding our credibility with key allies like the United States and Nato and across the region.

We criticised specific decisions, such as the scaling back of participation in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the snub of the Ukraine peace summit, and the tokenistic approach to countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. These were not mere oversights. They were signals of weakness that emboldened autocrats and left Australia exposed to hybrid threats. 

Tragically, events since then have proven our warnings right and with devastating force.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Now he’s caved in and bowed to the widespread demand of a Royal Commission into anti-Semitism, it’s appropriate to critique Anthony Albanese’s post-Bondi leadership. Michael de Percy and Sascha Dov Bachmann blast Albanese’s weakness over Bondi, but go further and conclude that when it comes to national security – and, remember, protecting its citizens from terrorism is a national government’s core business – the PM who prefers moonlighting as a DJ has performed not only poorly, but incompetently. It’s hard to argue with that.

My latest in The Spectator Australia with Professor Sascha Dov Bachmann, Albanese’s dithering on terror.

Labor’s Royal Commissions are typically political theatre

No comments

Royal Commissions should fix problems, not fabricate scapegoats.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Albanese announced a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. Retired High Court Justice Virginia Bell AC has been appointed to lead the inquiry, despite opposition from some in the Jewish community over a lack of consultation, despite Mr Albanese claiming to have consulted widely.

As a political scientist, I’ve observed how governments wield the instrument of Royal Commissions not just to uncover truths, but to shape narratives that suit their political agendas. The Australian Labor Party has earned a particular reputation for crafting terms of reference and timeframes that conveniently cast their opponents as villains while airbrushing their own historical complicity. This isn’t about partisan sniping, it’s about ensuring that inquiries serve justice and reform, not electoral advantage.

Albanese folds, appoints Virginia Bell to lead Royal Commission

No comments

Albanese folds, appoints Virginia Bell to lead Royal Commission.

In a press conference this afternoon, Prime Minister Albanese announced a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

He claimed that the NSW Royal Commission would have been, in effect, a ‘de facto’ Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Islamist-inspired massacre that killed fifteen people at the Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.

However, he had ‘reflected’ and ‘listened’ and established a Commonwealth Royal Commission.

The Commission will be led by retired High Court Justice Virginia Bell AC, who was appointed by Labor Attorney-General Robert McClelland to the High Court in 2009.

Bell led the inquiry into former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries.

The Commissioner has been tasked with tackling antisemitism, making recommendations to assist law-enforcement to tackle antisemitism, to examine the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terrorist attack, and to make any other recommendations arising out of the inquiry for strengthening social cohesion.

The Prime Minister stated that it won’t be a drawn-out process, with the inquiry to report before 14 December 2026.

The inquiry is not to compromise any criminal proceedings.

The inquiry will also consider antisemitism in our education sector, drawing on Gonski’s existing antisemitism education task force.

Mr Albanese stated that his government had addressed hate speech, hate preachers, and tougher gun laws. He stated that the Royal Commission would not substitute for the current tactical improvements being investigated by Dennis Richardson but strengthen these.

Mr Albanese claimed that he had ‘listened to people very genuinely’, and that the Richardson Review was absolutely critical to the process. He also claimed that antisemitism went back ‘many, many years’ and that the Royal Commission presented an opportunity to improve social cohesion.

He also claimed that the 73-point plan presented by the Opposition would have taken too long, hence the Richardson Review’s importance as part of the Royal Commission process.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote: 

And so it follows that there are already problems with the design of the Royal Commission. These have been detailed by both Michael de Percy (who was one of the first journalists on the story), and Dight Canning.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

The Prime Minister has finally done what he should have done three weeks ago. He has announced a Royal Commission into anti-Semitism and social cohesion (don’t ask me what the second bit actually means), by his hand-picked former High Court judge, Virginia Bell. In announcing it, Albanese was a classic case of that leadership joke: ‘I am their leader; I must follow them’. The Incredible Shrinking PM looked diminished, humiliated, embarrassed, although his press conference yesterday was a masterclass in linguistic gymnastics turning black into white: his stubborn refusal to call a royal commission, until now, became ‘we listened’. The terms of reference are mostly reasonable if the Royal Commission is truly independent and impartial, but there appears to be implicit no-go zones when it comes to questioning the influence of multiculturalism and migration policies on importing and transmitting old-country and religious (read Islamist fanatic) hatreds. That would violate ‘social cohesion’, would it not? Michael de Percy writes about the hollow Albanese presser. Dight Canning highlights how the announcement laid bare the moral bankruptcy and political hypocrisy of Albanese and his ministerial henchmen, and how diminished a leader the PM is.

    My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albanese folds, appoints Virginia Bell to lead Royal Commission.

    Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)
    © 2025 Dr Michael de Percy
    made with by templateszoo