Pressure mounts for Federal Royal Commission into Bondi Attack

ABC NEWS (Australia)

There's mounting pressure on the federal government to convene a commonwealth royal commission into the Bondi terror attack and antisemitism, with a number of major sports stars now joining the call.

Transcript

00:00It's been more than three weeks now since the Bondi terror attack unfolded, and during

00:07that time we've seen a growing number of people add their names to the list of those calling

00:13for a Commonwealth Royal Commission, including a number of prominent Australians.

00:18As part of this latest push, we've seen more than 60 sporting stars call for a federal

00:24Royal Commission, that includes the likes of canoeist Jess Fox, former swimmer Ian Thorpe,

00:31as well as former Grand Slam tennis champion Leighton Hewitt, and they want this Royal Commission

00:38to examine both anti-Semitism as well as the events leading up to the Bondi terror attack.

00:45Now that comes off the back of just last week, we saw more than 130 business leaders and eminent

00:53Australians also call for a Royal Commission with those similar focuses of anti-Semitism

01:01and the events leading up to the terror attack.

01:04That included names such as billionaire James Packer, former Reserve Bank Governor Philip

01:10Lowe and former Virgin boss Jane Herdlicker.

01:15And we've also seen a number of other names, people like former High Court Chief Justice

01:20Robert French, as well as a number of Jewish community leaders and the families of the

01:27victims of the Bondi terror attack.

01:29Now, the federal government has been resisting these calls for weeks now.

01:35One of the main reasons that it says that it doesn't want to hold a Royal Commission is

01:40because of the length of time that such inquiries take.

01:45The government says that its review into intelligence and law enforcement agencies led by former spy

01:51boss Dennis Richardson, rather, will be quicker to get answers.

01:58And the government also says that it will cooperate with a New South Wales led Royal Commission.

02:04The Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has also made some points such as a Royal Commission could

02:10platform the worst voices and examples of anti-Semitism that we've seen over the past couple of years.

02:17Now, Industry Minister Tim Ayres was asked about this earlier, where he defended the government's

02:24approach.

02:25Here's what he had to say.

02:27TIM Ayres, This is not the time to be doing things that are politically expedient or politically

02:33easy.

02:34This is the time to act with urgency, to be focused on unity here in Australia, to be focused

02:45on making sure that our institutions and our agencies have got the powers that are available

02:52to them being exercised.

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