A test of leadership

Leadership is made and broken by traumatic events.  After the Christchurch massacre Jacinda Ardern’s legacy as Prime Minister of New Zealand will be remembered by the way she embraced the Muslim community and said, “They are us.”  While US President George’s Bush’s slow response immediately after 9/11 tarnished his record.

The Bondi Beach massacre was a defining moment for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s leadership and he has struggled.  The Prime Minister has at times said the ‘right’ words about “wrapping our arms around the Jewish community”, but in confronting the brutal murder of at least 15 people including 10-year-old-girl Matilda, what has felt missing was genuine emotion, moral conviction and authentic empathy.

Instead there was defensiveness.  When the Prime Minister was asked why the Government had not taken stronger action to counter antisemitism, he said on Tuesday, “There wasn’t an anti-Semitism envoy before our government established one, and anti-Semitism didn’t begin in 2022.”

But by Thursday Albanese signalled some self-reflection saying, “Governments aren’t perfect, I’m not perfect,” and “Could we have done more? Of course – you could always do more.”

The Prime Minister announced plans to adopt the antisemitism envoy’s report in full including plans to: strengthen hate speech laws; powers to reject or cancel visas for anyone spreading anti-Jewish hate; and launch a task-force to take on antisemitism at universities.