An interim report into last year’s Bondi Beach mass shooting on Thursday advised increased security around Jewish public events and further gun reforms among 14 initial recommendations, but found Australia’s legal and regulatory frameworks did not hinder security agencies in preventing or responding to the attack.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would adopt all the initial recommendations made by the Royal Commission, the nation’s most powerful inquiry, into the December 14 shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 dead.
While the report did not propose urgent changes, it outlined recommendations to strengthen Australia’s counter-terrorism capabilities, Albanese told reporters.
“This is as the government envisaged, that the first task of the Royal Commission, the priority, was to look at the security elements of these issues,” he said.
Five of the recommendations remain classified due to sensitive national security concerns, Albanese added.
The attack at Bondi Beach stunned Australia, a country known for its strict gun laws, and prompted widespread calls for enhanced measures against antisemitism and tighter firearm controls. Authorities have said the alleged perpetrators, a father and son duo, were inspired by the Islamic State militant group. It was the deadliest mass gun attack in the country in three decades.
The Royal Commission was established in January, following mounting pressure from Jewish advocacy groups and victims’ families, who criticized Albanese’s initial hesitation in launching the inquiry.
Report recommends review of joint counter-terrorism teams
The 154-page interim report recommends a comprehensive review of the country’s joint counter-terrorism teams, with findings to be submitted to police commissioners and the director-general of security within three months.
It also calls for expanded security protocols during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, to include other high-profile Jewish festivals and events.
Additional measures include promptly updating the counter-terrorism handbook and involving senior government officials in counter-terrorism exercises, and accelerating efforts to implement a proposed national gun buyback plan.
“The review has revealed aspects in which counter-terrorism capability at federal and state levels could be improved,” the report noted.
Public hearings by the commission are scheduled to start next week, with a final report due by the end of the year.
Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told ABC news that the report is “a step in the process,” but that “we need to get back to a point where Jewish Australians feel safe displaying their identities, congregating in public, and celebrating being Jewish and being an Australian.”
Ryvchin said he hopes that, if the recommendations are embraced by the government, there will be stronger cooperation between agencies, better preparedness and planning, and better sharing of information.
“But again, having spoken to families of the dead, to some of the survivors, the burning questions which they had – how were these individuals able to acquire firearms, how were they able to travel to terror hotspots despite being known to authorities since at least 2019, how were they able to plan and plot and carry out reconnaissance in plain sight, why wasn’t the event better resourced by police – these haven’t been resolved.”
In a statement, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) said that, while the interim report is not the final account, it does “put beyond doubt that Bondi occurred in a known and escalating threat environment for Jewish Australians.”
“The Federal Government’s full acceptance of the interim recommendations is welcome and should now be matched by State and Territory governments, particularly in areas of policing and event security. Extending High Holy Days-style security arrangements to major Jewish events is a necessary interim measure to ensure communities can gather safely in the current threat environment,” ZFA said,
The Australian Jewish Association welcomed the report, agreeing with ECAJ and ZFA that “while limited in scope, it addresses some important issues in the lead-up to the Bondi massacre.”
“The revelation that police attending the Bondi Chanukah event were reportedly told there was no need to remain for the full duration is particularly troubling,” AJA said.
AJA also said the report’s credibility is undermined by its failure to address radical Islamist extremism. “No serious analysis of the lead-up to the Bondi massacre can ignore this,” it said.