After weeks of pressure, the Prime Minister has announced a royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion following the ...
Questions asked in this interview
8
1:41Why did it take you so long to read the National Room on a Federal Royal Commission?
3:24Why not make that clear to people earlier in the process?
4:51Shouldn't that have been the point where you'd say yes, we are at least considering the terms of reference to save them further grief?
7:32... than leading to where all these Australians, eminent Australians from different walks of life, including the families of the victims, have been for many days, if not weeks, before today's announcement of the Federal Royal Commission?
9:05What confidence do you have that Virginia Bell will do the job required of her?
11:24How will the Federal Royal Commission address that?
12:58Prime Minister, would you be prepared to give evidence to this Royal Commission?
After weeks of intense pressure, the prime minister has announced a royal commission on anti-semitism and social cohesion following the Bondi terror attack. Former High Court Judge Virginia Bell will lead the commission. She'll deliver her report by December this year. In a moment, I'll speak to the prime minister, but first, here's our political editor, Jacob Griber.
As the nation recoiled from the Bondi terror attack, the prime minister quickly faced a barrage of criticism that he'd not done enough to curb anti-semitism.
The government insisted a royal commission would take too long.
There was no royal commission called by the Howard government after Port Arthur. There was no royal commission called by the Abbott government after the Lindt siege. But then came the ground swell of calls for action from victims' families, business leaders, sporting figures, and members of the Labour Party.
This evening, the New South Wales premier Chris Minns announced that in light of the Federal Royal Commission being established, the state inquiry now won't proceed. The Prime Minister joined me from Canberra earlier.
Well, it's just been 25 days, Michael, since that travesty of the anti-Semitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach. And in that time, our priority has been firstly to make sure that we look at the national security issues. So during that time, we've already established the Richardson review. We've increased funding for security agencies. We have strengthened the recommendations of the special envoy's report on to combat anti-semitism. We've been drafting legislation on hate laws for the parliament to come back and we said in response to New South Wales announcing they will have a royal commission. We said that there'd be full Commonwealth cooperation with that which would in effect have been a Commonwealth and New South Wales Royal Commission. So what we've determined is we've listened to people's responses. We've responded to that constructively. We've also been working through these recommendations and the terms of reference weren't done this morning. They were done over a long period of time including with proper consultation with the community to make sure that we got it right because what we didn't want is a series of announcements. We wanted one announcement with the royal commissioner with the right structures in place to make sure that we make a real difference which is what people are looking for.
So you've been working on the terms of reference for this federal commission just to clarify for some weeks now. Why not make that clear to people earlier in the process?
Well, for some time, Michael, in today's 24-hour media cycle, you can either allow it to run you or you can be an orderly, considered government that goes through proper processes that have proper consultation. And one of the things that I've been doing as well is sitting down with families like in the home of Rabbi Ulman who has welcomed this report. I spoke to him today. He's in New York. He's the leader of the Habad community there in Bondi that organized the Hanukkah event. I've sat in homes. I've spoken to relatives. I've met with leaders of Jewish community organizations, but in particular those local people grieving and we have made sure that we've got this right. The terms of reference I note have been welcomed by a range of Jewish organizations, business organizations, and others. And what we've been focused on is making sure that the country can unite and go forward while others have been seeking division. We've been seeking unity and cohesiveness.
You talk about Jewish members of the Jewish community grieving families of the victims. A week ago they begged almost begged you to set up a federal royal commission. Shouldn't that have been the point where you'd say yes, we are at least considering the terms of reference to save them further grief?
15 more exchanges in this transcript
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Albanese, A. (2026, January 8). Anthony Albanese announces a royal commission into Bondi attacks | 7.30 [Interview transcript]. ABC News In-depth. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/631553/
MLA
Anthony Albanese. "Anthony Albanese announces a royal commission into Bondi attacks | 7.30." ABC News In-depth, 8 Jan. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/631553/.
BibTeX
@misc{albanese2026_631553,
author = {Anthony Albanese},
title = {Anthony Albanese announces a royal commission into Bondi attacks | 7.30},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, ABC News In-depth. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jan},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/631553/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
