After Hanukkah attack, Australian FM says she’s ‘desperately sorry’ about antisemitism

Penny Wong pledges to clamp down on hate speech, guns; PM Albanese ends interview after he’s shown old clip of him speaking at anti-Israel rally with Hezbollah flag in background

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Friday that she is “desperately sorry” for what Jews have experienced in the country, amid accusations that Canberra had declined to tackle a surge of antisemitism leading up to the deadly terror attack at Bondi Beach earlier this month.

“I’m desperately sorry for what has occurred in our country and what the Jewish community have experienced,” she told the Advertiser tabloid. “You always regret what more could have been done… We acted, but we have to do more – and we are.”

Wong cited two areas of reform that the government is focusing on in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting, in which 15 people were killed and some 40 wounded, by a father and son inspired by the Islamic State jihadist group.

“I think the two aspects of reform that we’re engaging in now are really important, both in terms of gun control, but also we acted on hate speech, but we clearly need to go further,” she said.

Wong condemned the slogans “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — widely interpreted as a call for the wholesale destruction of the State of Israel — and “Globalize the intifada” — widely interpreted as an endorsement of terror attacks.

The foreign minister said she agreed with the Australian antisemitism envoy, who said those slogans “have been used to whip up anger and hatred of the Jewish people.”

Australian Opposition Leader Sussan Levy lashed out at Wong last week, noting the foreign minister had not visited the site of the attack and charging: “I haven’t seen Penny Wong shed a single tear.”

Levy has been urging Canberra to establish a national Commonwealth Royal Commission into antisemitism and the Bondi attack. New South Wales, the state in which the shooting took place, has launched its own probe, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has so far resisted calls for a federal equivalent, saying it could slow down the country’s response to the attack.

Bridget McKenzie, another opposition senator, pointed out that Wong had not visited the communities in southern Israel that were devastated by the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion, either, when she visited the Jewish state in 2024.

In her interview Friday, Wong said she would visit Bondi “when appropriate,” noting a desire to “respect the grief” of the victims’ families.

Many have blamed the ruling Labor Party, and Albanese, for a lack of action in response to warnings and cries for help from Australian Jews over rising antisemitism in the two years since the start of the war in Gaza.

The prime minister was booed last week at a memorial event.

In a radio interview on Thursday with presenter Susie Elelman, Albanese was confronted about footage that appeared to show him speaking at an anti-Israel rally decades ago.

In the video, Albanese appears to say that “the stance of Israel is to meet children throwing rocks with helicopter gunships, with tanks and with missiles.” He appears to be standing near a banner reading “Stop the Israeli slaughter, free Palestine now.” A flag of the Hezbollah terror group is also visible in the background.

Albanese said he had “no idea” what video Elelman was talking about, and said he would not comment on a video that he hadn’t seen and was not being shown.

Asked whether he had attended anti-Israel rallies in the past, Albanese said he’d long “been involved in the Middle East,” and he affirmed his support for a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

The short, tense interview had begun with Elelman noting: “Usually, I would say Merry Christmas, and ask how you’ve been celebrating, but as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor whose business was vandalized and graffitied with swastikas, there’s more important things I want to talk to you about.”