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Sussan Ley and other senior Coalition politicians have linked the Labor government\u2019s recognition of Palestine to the antisemitic Bondi terror attack and attacked Penny Wong for not shedding tears in public at an extraordinary press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n
The spray from Coalition MPs came amid growing demands for prime minister Anthony Albanese to call a royal commission into the Bondi attack, with criticism from the Coalition, Jewish groups and even some Labor MPs that the government\u2019s review of the intelligence community<\/a> is too narrow.<\/p>\n Opposition leader Sussan Ley was visibly angry at a press conference on Monday morning, raising her voice as she hit out at foreign minister Penny Wong for not visiting the site of last Sunday\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen Penny Wong shed a single tear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Shadow minister Bridget McKenzie<\/a> went further, linking, without evidence. Wong\u2019s failure to visit certain sites of Hamas\u2019 7 October massacre in Israel and other government policies to the Bondi massacre.<\/p>\n \u201cPenny Wong, the answers you\u2019ve been giving on why you didn\u2019t go to Kibbutz Be\u2019eri, why you didn\u2019t turn up to the Nova music site when you went to Israel, all of this, recognition of Palestine, all of these decisions of your government have brought this upon us,\u201d McKenzie claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we need a royal commission to actually uncover that and give our Jewish community and all Australians a chance to get the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n Nationals senator McKenzie, who has criticised Labor\u2019s plans for firearms reform, claimed the problem was \u201cnot the gun, it\u2019s Islamic extremism, and it\u2019s in our suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long, we\u2019ve papered over that reality in some hope of, you know, this multicultural nirvana. But it has failed.\u201d<\/p>\n Wong\u2019s trip included meeting Israeli government officials and families of hostages<\/a> held by Hamas.<\/p>\n Wong, speaking to the ABC on Monday, strongly condemned antisemitism and the Bondi attack, again calling \u201cto turn the temperature down\u201d in Australia\u2019s national debate.<\/p>\n Shadow education minister Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, said Australia\u2019s Jewish community \u201ccannot survive on the crumbs of this government and appalling Prime Minister, who is always late to the party\u201d, criticising Labor for being \u201clate to act\u201d on banning doxxing and banning Nazi symbols.<\/p>\n Government sources noted the Coalition had voted against Labor\u2019s anti-doxxing legislation in November 2024, and had not taken stronger action on banning Nazi symbols during their time in government.<\/p>\n McKenzie, standing alongside Ley \u2013 a former convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group \u2013 claimed Labor\u2019s August recognition of Palestine<\/a> had been among decisions which \u201cbrought this upon us\u201d.<\/p>\n