Australia will establish a royal commission — the country’s highest form of public inquiry — into the Bondi Beach mass shooting that killed 15 people, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, bowing to mounting public pressure for answers about an ISIS-inspired attack and the rise of anti-Semitism.
“I’ve repeatedly said that our government’s priority is to promote unity and social cohesion. And this is what Australia needs to heal,” Albanese told reporters, adding that the decision followed community calls for a comprehensive, transparent probe.
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The Dec. 14 assault, which authorities say targeted Jews attending a Hanukkah celebration near the beach, was Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades. The federal royal commission will examine potential intelligence and policing failures as well as the prevalence of anti-Semitism nationwide, according to the government.
Royal commissions hold public hearings, compel evidence and often run for years. The Bondi inquiry will be led by Virginia Bell, a widely respected former High Court judge. Albanese had previously brushed off demands for a royal commission before agreeing to the process amid intensifying scrutiny and grief.
Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack. An Indian national who entered Australia on a visa in 1998, he allegedly carried out the assault with his 24-year-old son, Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison. The younger Akram has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.
Police and intelligence agencies are facing fraught questions over whether they could have acted earlier. Australia’s intelligence agency flagged Naveed Akram in 2019, but he slipped off the radar after authorities concluded he posed no imminent threat. The pair traveled to the southern Philippines in the weeks before the shooting, fueling suspicion of links to Islamist extremists in the region. Investigators have so far found no evidence of a wider conspiracy.
“There is no evidence to suggest these alleged offenders were part of a broader terrorist cell, or were directed by others to carry out the attack,” Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said in December.
The royal commission announcement follows sustained appeals from victims’ families and Jewish community leaders. In an open letter in December, families urged the prime minister to “immediately establish a Royal Commission into the rapid rise of anti-Semitism in Australia,” writing, “We demand answers and solutions.”
Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, welcomed the decision. “I think it’s important the government has listened to all who have advocated for such a commission,” she said. “It does reflect the seriousness of the growth in anti-Semitism and its impact on our country and on our democracy.”
Beyond the inquiry, the government has moved to tighten security and social cohesion measures, pledging tougher action on hate speech and firearms. In December, it unveiled a sweeping gun buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets” — the largest since 1996, when Australia overhauled firearm laws after the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people.
Albanese framed the commission as a path to accountability and national healing. “What we’ve done is listen, and we’ve concluded that where we have landed today is an appropriate way forward for national unity,” he said.
The commission’s terms of reference, timeline and reporting deadlines were not immediately disclosed. But its remit — spanning intelligence assessments, police response, online radicalization and anti-Semitic activity — signals the broad reckoning Australians have demanded since the Bondi Beach attack.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
