Australia’s prime minister gets booed in Bondi

Afortnight has passed since two gunmen inspired by Islamic State (IS), a jihadist terrorist group, fired on people celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15. Alongside the grief have come bitter recriminations. The conservative Liberal-National coalition, Australia’s main opposition, is heaping blame on the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese. It says he failed to fight antisemitism that has mounted in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023. Foreigners point fingers, too. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, accused Mr Albanese’s government of taking “no action” to counter hatred of Jews.

Mr Albanese has pushed back. He has noted that in July 2024 his government appointed Australia’s first-ever special envoy to combat antisemitism; that in February 2025 it tightened hate-speech laws; and that it has found money to safeguard synagogues and other Jewish sites. Yet many Australians think all this too meagre. Just before Christmas the prime minister attended a vigil for those murdered in Bondi Beach. He received boos from the crowd.

Under pressure, Mr Albanese’s government is pumping out reforms. He has unveiled a gun-buyback scheme—the largest since a 1996 mass shooting in Tasmania. John Howard, who was prime minister at the time of those killings, has accused the government of talking tough on firearms to distract from its failure to curb antisemitism. Yet polls suggest stricter gun laws enjoy broad support among voters on both the left and right.

Mr Albanese has also announced a review of Australia’s federal police and its domestic intelligence service. Australians agree with him that there were clearly “real issues” with intelligence before the attack by Sajid Akram and his son Naveed. The younger Mr Akram had once been investigated by security services; it is odd that his father was permitted to own six firearms. Whether the authorities should have spotted that the pair had travelled weeks before the attack to the southern Philippines (where IS-linked groups are active) is another live debate.

None of this is controversial. When it comes to eradicating antisemitism, Mr Albanese is going to have to navigate somewhat more contested ground. His government has announced a further tightening of hate-speech laws. It has also promised it will “work through the implementation” of 13 recommendations contained in a report that its antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, handed to the government in July. But Ms Segal’s report provoked considerable debate when it was first unveiled. It pushes for adopting an official definition of antisemitism that some people claim would encompass criticism of Israel. It also calls for public money to be withheld from institutions such as universities when they are deemed not to have taken enough action against hate.

State authorities in New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, are moving more swiftly than the federal government. In the early hours of December 24th state legislators handed local police new powers to restrict public protests for up to three months after a terrorist attack (supporters of Palestine fear their rallies, in particular, will be curbed). The state is also promising to pass a law in the new year that might criminalise the use of slogans such as “globalise the intifada”.

Chris Minns, the governor of New South Wales, has received praise for his leadership in the weeks after the Bondi massacre—even as Mr Albanese, a Labor colleague, has been panned. Yet some politicians and civil-liberties groups are alarmed by the rush to rewrite rules. Ben Saul, a law professor in Sydney and the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, has warned against disproportionate restrictions on expression and association. “Overreach does not make us safer,” he wrote on social media. “It lets terror win.” ■