MEDIA STATEMENT 31 December 2025
Prime Minister Albanese is continuing to bend over backwards to avoid calling a Commonwealth Royal Commission into antisemitism, now claiming that unnamed experts advised him to prioritise an internal departmental review over a Royal Commission, and implying that this advice came from within the national security committee.
This claim strains credulity and represents yet another desperate attempt to resist the growing national groundswell for a Commonwealth Royal Commission.
It would be highly unusual for national security and law enforcement agencies to advise a government against establishing a Commonwealth Royal Commission, particularly one that would necessarily examine the performance of these agencies themselves. The decision to establish a Royal Commission does not typically fall within the remit of national security agencies but rests with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Attorney-General’s Department, which administers the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth).
The Albanese Government’s position is further undermined by the fact that respected former intelligence and security leaders, including former AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty, former intelligence chief Nick Warner, former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo, and former Chief of the Defence Force and Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, have all publicly supported the establishment of a Commonwealth Royal Commission.
Prime Minister Albanese’s claim that he consulted “actual experts” is also deeply offensive and dismissive of Jewish community leaders and the Bondi victims’ families, implying that their voices are somehow non-expert. No one is more expert than those directly impacted by antisemitism, many of whom have been warning the Albanese Government about its consequences for more than two years.
Several major Jewish organisations have also confirmed they were not consulted on the terms of reference for the departmental review, despite Prime Minister Albanese claiming extensive consultation. If the Albanese Government is confident in its position, it should immediately disclose who provided advice against a Commonwealth Royal Commission and explain why it believes the voices of Jewish community leaders and victims’ families should be ignored.
Meanwhile, the calls for a Commonwealth Royal Commission continue to grow louder by the hour. Today, 16 major Jewish organisations issued a joint statement urging Prime Minister Albanese to establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission, recognising that only the highest form of public inquiry has the powers necessary to investigate a threat of this scale, which crosses state borders, disciplines and agencies.
These groups join an ever-expanding coalition of Australians demanding a Commonwealth Royal Commission, including Jewish community leaders and members, the families of victims of the Bondi attack, former and current Labor MPs, former Chief Justice of the High Court Robert French, the family of Lindt Café victim Katrina Dawson, more than 170 senior barristers and judges and many others from all walks of life.
Despite this, the Albanese Government continues to dig in its heels. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has suggested that a Royal Commission would give “some of the worst statements and worst voices” a platform, a claim that will ring hollow for a Jewish community already facing antisemitism that is widespread and ubiquitous, and which amounts to gaslighting community members and families of victims calling for a Royal Commission.
Prime Minister Albanese’s inexplicable resistance, and his efforts to tie himself in knots to avoid a Commonwealth Royal Commission, raise serious questions. What is he trying so desperately to hide? Is he afraid of what a Royal Commission might expose about alleged antisemitism within his own party, or about failures to act in the face of warnings for more than two years?
The time to act is now. As the Coalition has repeatedly emphasised, it has a comprehensive draft Terms of Reference ready to go and is prepared to work constructively with the Albanese Government to establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission.
Prime Minister Albanese must stop making excuses, show moral courage and urgently establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission.
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au
