Australia at tipping point, Frydenberg warns

“Now is a time to fight, not a time for flight,” former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said during a panel discussion in Melbourne last week.

The “After Bondi” event last Thursday featured Frydenberg along with former Labor Defence Minister Mike Kelly and Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of Reuven Morrison who was killed in the Bondi massacre

It was moderated by journalist and author Rachelle Unreich.

Commenting on Australia today after the Bondi attack, Frydenberg said, “This is Australia’s fight, not just the Jewish community’s fight and all of you are as important as each of us.

“In terms of where our country’s at, I think it’s at a tipping point … Bondi was both predictable and preventable, and where we are in our country is because of a lack of leadership, and I’m not just talking political, I’m also talking civilian, I’m talking about our … legal institutions, in our education institutions, of course, in our arts and creative sector, in our health sector.

“A lack of leadership has meant that in our country … antisemitism has become normalised … We have so much work to do, not just through the Royal Commission, but in our own communities … we’re all heavily invested in getting this right.”

Frydenberg said he would like to see the Royal Commission focus on a range of areas including education and immigration.

Regarding education he said, “We are focusing overwhelmingly on rights and not enough on responsibilities,” and specifically the importance of civic virtue.

On immigration he remarked, “We treat illegal immigration as a matter of self-defence. We now have to treat legal immigration as a matter of self-defence. It’s not a right to come to this country, it’s a privilege to come to this country.”

Kelly shared he felt the Government needed to pay more attention to concerns about Islamist extremism and improving intelligence.

“I know from being deeply involved with those agencies that there are immediate capability needs that need to be addressed and funded that would have prevented what happened in Bondi,” Kelly said.

As to what the families of the victims of Bondi would like to see the Royal Commission address, Gutnick said, “For our families, we really wanted to showcase where the failings lay and who was to be held responsible for that.

“And in doing so, that would showcase what systems we could put in place to ensure that nothing of this magnitude or even anything similar were to ever happen again.”