Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott says moves to tighten gun control and hate speech laws will do little to prevent a future terror attack, while also calling for stronger immigration procedures.
The former Liberal Party leader also said there had been no comparable mass attacks against Jews in Britain, Europe, or the United States, and claimed the Labor government had “failed to create a climate of safety and respect for Jewish people.”
“It’s not so much the gun; it’s the person who pulled the trigger. It’s not so much the weapon; it’s the hatred that motivated its use, and this is what the government has lamentably failed to deal with,” Abbott told podcast series, “Australia’s Future With Tony Abbott.”
He did say there needed to be an investigation into how the father of the duo was able to legally obtain six weapons with a gun license, but noted additional laws against hate speech were not useful.
“We don’t need more laws against hate speech; we need the existing laws enforced,” Abbott said.
‘There’s been quite a double standard when it comes to enforcing hate speech laws. If you or I say something offensive to Muslims, we’re likely to be in all sorts of trouble. But radical Islamists can say what they like … and nothing happens.”
Abbott also commented on the list of helpline numbers read out by Albanese at a post-Bondi press conference.
“I suppose there are people in our community who’ve been traumatised by these events, but the job of the government is not so much therapy. The job of the government is safety. We don’t want the government to hug us. We want the government to keep us safe,” he said.
Immigration Crackdown
Immigration also needs to be tightened, the former prime minister maintained.
“We should not import hatred from overseas,” he said, questioning the government’s decision to issue 3,000 tourist visas to people from Gaza and to repatriate so-called ISIS brides.
“Gaza is a terrorist-controlled war zone. Why on earth would we bring people to this country from Gaza without the sorts of security checks which are simply impossible at this time?” he asked.
“Why would we issue them visas without being absolutely confident that they are people who accept our values and embrace our way of life?”
Albanese, he said, “has been at pains not to talk about radical militant Islam ever since the Oct. 7 atrocity” and, when he did, coupled it with mention of Islamophobia—something which Abbott claimed was “almost non-existent” in Australia.
“It was only 48 hours after this atrocity that he finally brought himself to say softly that there was an extremist, perverted version of Islam abroad.”
However, Abbott argued that most people in the Labor Party “just don’t get” national security because they entered politics focused on social justice issues rather than strategic threats, including domestic terrorism motivated by Islamist extremism and aggression by the Chinese Communist Party in the South China Sea.
“Many of them don’t like Australia—they think that we are a society riddled with injustice and discrimination,” he said.
“They angst over the fact that Indigenous people were dispossessed after 1788,” he said.
Abbott said the Albanese government had ignored a series of events which he characterised as part of an escalating pattern, including the “initial elation” of Islamic preachers in response to Oct. 7, the riot outside the Opera House on Oct. 9 where hateful chants against Jews were heard, and the march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge where terrorist flags were displayed and talks to globalise the Intifada and chants of death to the Israel Defense Forces were echoed.
“There’s been a whole series of escalating hate incidents against Jewish people and institutions,” he said.
The government, he said, needs to “start doing what should have been done all along.”
“Deport hate preachers, prosecute people who incite violence against anyone, but particularly against Jewish people, and ban these hate marches,” he said.
Opponents Reject Connection
Opponents of the new federal and state laws, which some have called “draconian,” have rejected the idea of a connection between pro-Palestine protests and the Bondi shooting. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has attributed the attack to Islamic State ideology.
ASIO has said Islamic State views Hamas-style governance and its alliances with Iran and other governments as “un-Islamic,” regarding them as “apostate” and “tyrannical.”
Naama Blatman, an executive member of the Jewish Council of Australia, also rejected any link between the Bondi Beach terror attack and the pro-Palestine Harbour Bridge protest.
“What happened in Bondi was an evil anti-Semitic attack, but let it be very clear, there is nothing connecting these attacks to the movement for justice in Palestine, to the protests we held, to the marches we shared,” she said.
“Criticism of Israel, as harsh as it may be, is not equivalent to anti-Semitism.”
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