To Australia’s Jewish Community: We Stand With You.

It was our worst nightmare.

A massacre on Bondi Beach: children, rabbis, Holocaust survivors, all of them doing nothing more and nothing less than celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light.

Australia will never be the same.

And make no mistake: this evil was not spontaneous, and it was not isolated. This was not “just” an attack on Jewish Australians. It was an attack on all Australians, a strike at our social cohesion, our way of life, and the basic promise that people can gather in peace without fear.

It was a strike at the idea that in Australia, people can live freely, worship openly, and raise their children without looking over their shoulder. That promise was shattered on the sand at Bondi.

And tragically, it was all too predictable.

For months, for years, the Jewish community, along with so many Australians, warned that the tide was rising. Our security agencies warned that words can become violence. The Director-General of ASIO rang the alarm bell, making clear the dangerous surge in antisemitism was among the most serious threats to life.

So the question Australians are asking now, with grief in their hearts and anger in their voices, is simple:

Why didn’t the Albanese Government listen? And why didn’t it act?

Because this has been building in front of our eyes.

From the disgraceful scenes on the steps of the Sydney Opera House just hours after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 atrocities, to firebombings of synagogues and childcare centres, the doxxing of Jewish Australians, the harassment of Jewish students, and repeated rallies where hateful slogans and extremist symbols have been seen and too often tolerated, the past two years have brought a tsunami of hate.

And it has not only been online, or rhetorical, or abstract. It has been lived, day after day, by Jewish families deciding whether it is safe to attend services, whether it is safe to wear a Star of David, and whether it is safe for their kids to take public transport to school. It has been Jewish businesses wondering if they will be targeted. It has been ordinary Australians watching the country grow harsher, angrier, and more divided.

For too many Jewish Australians, it has felt like the country they love stopped protecting them. That they were left to carry fear alone while those in authority issued statements, held press conferences, promised action, and then it still got worse.

For too long, the Albanese Government chose appeasement, delay, and excuses. The Prime Minister told Australians antisemitism would not be allowed to “find so much as a foothold” here. That promise has been exposed for what it was: empty.

Because the truth is this: Australia has not been safe enough for Jewish Australians, and that is an unacceptable national failure.

For two years, we have watched antisemitism escalate. The question now is: why wasn’t decisive action taken sooner? Why did it take a national bloodbath for the government to finally speak with urgency?

Hollow words will not cut it.

In response to two years of intimidation and hate, Australians have heard too many hollow words, condemnation in general terms, paired with a failure to take the hard decisions needed to stop it.

Australians are done with hollow words. They want leadership that draws clear red lines and enforces them. They want consequences, not commentary. They want prevention, not post-mortems.

That means stating plainly:

Incitement to violence is not a protest.

Glorifying terrorism is not free speech.

Harassing Jewish Australians is not political commentary.

Importing overseas conflict onto Australian streets is unacceptable.

Peaceful protest has a place in a democracy. But intimidation, hate, and the glorification of terrorist violence do not and must never be normalised. The idea that a free society must simply absorb threats, chanting mobs, and extremist propaganda is not tolerance. It is surrender.

Leadership means setting red lines early, enforcing the law, and stopping radicalisation before it turns into bloodshed, not managing it after the fact.

This is about security and self-defence.

Australians are now confronting a blunt truth: preventing violence is not a matter of rhetoric. It requires the state to act, using the tools of law, intelligence, policing, prosecution, and border control, to stop the next attack.

That means resourcing the agencies tasked with stopping radicalisation. It means disrupting extremist networks. It means prosecuting those who incite violence. It means banning and removing those who come here to preach hatred. It means shutting down funding pipelines. It means ending the culture of permissiveness that lets extremists operate in plain sight while the government wrings its hands.

And there is a principle Australians understand instinctively:

We cannot accept people coming to this country, and we cannot accept people staying in this country if they are engaged in incitement, extremist recruitment, violent hatred, or the targeting of communities.

This is not controversial. It is common sense. It is self-defence. It is the national interest. It is the first duty of government: to keep Australians safe.

The Prime Minister can’t just condemn hate. He must confront it, disrupt it, prosecute it, and deport it where the law allows.

Everything must now be on the table.

After a national trauma like this, Australians are demanding that everything be on the table. As Josh Frydenberg put it, Australia has been radicalised on this government’s watch.

That means we cannot hide behind the process. Politics cannot paralyse us. We cannot be distracted by symbolic gestures while extremists organise, recruit, and escalate.

Extremist ideology is a cancer. When it spreads, it destroys lives, families and communities, and it corrodes the foundations of a free society. That is why the response must be broader, tougher, and faster.

Australia has the right to decide who enters this country. And Australia has the right to remove non-citizens who threaten public safety.

If you are here on a visa and you are involved in incitement, extremist organising, hate preaching, terror glorification, or violence, you should expect one outcome: your visa will be cancelled, and you will be removed from Australia. No loopholes. No excuses. No delays.

And if our screening and integrity settings are not strong enough to keep extremists out, they must be strengthened immediately. If information-sharing is inadequate, fix it. If identity checking is weak, tighten it. If visa cancellation powers are being used too timidly, use them. If there are gaps in enforcement, close them.

Entry to Australia is a privilege, not an entitlement. If you come here to import hatred, intimidate communities, or glorify terrorist violence, you are not welcome.

We must be crystal clear about Australian values.

Australians are tolerant people. We are proud of our successful multicultural society. The vast majority of Australians of every faith and background are decent, law-abiding citizens who reject hatred and violence.

But tolerance cannot mean tolerating the intolerable. Multiculturalism cannot mean moral relativism. Social cohesion cannot mean looking the other way when extremists test our boundaries and push for more.

Australian values are not optional. They are the foundations upon which our democracy rests.

Belief in democracy and the rule of law.

Freedom of religion and freedom from intimidation.

Respect for the equal dignity of every person.

Equal rights for men and women.

Mutual respect and civic responsibility.

And let me be crystal clear: violent Islamist extremism is utterly incompatible with Australian values.

Australia is built on equality between men and women, freedom of religion, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for others. Any ideology that preaches hatred, intimidation, or political violence has no place here. Islamist extremism is incompatible with Australia, full stop.

We welcome people who embrace our democracy and our laws. But we will not tolerate hate, intimidation, or violence from anyone, anywhere. If someone comes to Australia or remains in Australia while actively working to undermine these foundations through incitement, extremist hate, or violence, Australians are entitled to say: No. Not here. Not in our country.

Action must start now. Because if we do not change course, the warning is clear: it will only be a matter of time before we are grieving another mass-casualty event. We cannot normalise this. We cannot accept a future where every festival, every service, every community event requires barricades and armed protection.

Accountability starts at the top.

Accountability matters. When Australians aren’t safe, responsibility sits at the top.

The Prime Minister’s first duty is the safety and security of Australians, and after Bondi, he has to own what failed on his watch.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about responsibility. Leadership means taking action before the bloodshed, not explaining it afterwards. It means facing hard truths, not offering soothing phrases. It means acting decisively when warnings are clear, not waiting until tragedy forces your hand.

To Australia’s Jewish community: we stand with you.

You should be able to worship, celebrate, send your kids to school, and live your lives without fear in Australia.

You are not alone. Your safety is not negotiable. Your place in this country is not conditional.

Australia is at its best when every Australian can live freely, practise their faith openly, and raise their families in peace. That is what must be restored with urgency, with strength, and with resolve.

In the midst of horror, Australians showed extraordinary decency: helping strangers, donating blood, supporting victims’ families, and standing shoulder to shoulder with grieving communities. That decency is who we are.

But decency must be matched with resolve. If we excuse extremist propaganda as political expression, if we normalise hate as the price of diversity, then we teach the next generation that our values are negotiable.

They are not.

This shameful chapter must be closed not with statements, but with action: stronger enforcement, stronger laws where needed, stronger prevention, and stronger national leadership that draws the red lines and enforces them.

Australia will never be the same after Bondi. But Australia can still decide what happens next.

We can choose unity over division. We can choose courage over cowardice. We can choose action over excuses.

Every Australian must demand nothing less.

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