Australian PM Albanese apologises to Jewish community after Bondi attack
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged the anger directed at him, after he was booed at a vigil on Dec 21 marking a week since the attack occurred.
PHOTO: EPA
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SYDNEY – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologised to the Jewish community following the deadly attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach
His remarks follow days of criticism from Jewish leaders and opposition parties, who say the government has failed to adequately address a rise in anti-Semitism over the past two years.
Mr Albanese on Dec 22 acknowledged the anger directed at him, after he was booed at a vigil
“I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I’m prime minister,” Mr Albanese told reporters on Dec 22. “And I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced.”
Australia’s New South Wales state – home to Sydney – urgently recalled Parliament this week in an effort to tighten gun laws in the wake of the killings, including capping the number of firearms a person can own.
Last week, Mr Albanese announced a plan to buy back surplus, newly-banned and illegal firearms, saying hundreds of thousands will likely be collected and destroyed.
The programme would be the largest since the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, a landmark moment in Australia’s gun control reforms.
The moves follow what officials have called Australia’s worst terrorist attack, carried out by a father and son duo on Dec 14.
The father was killed in an ensuing shoot-out, while the son – identified as 24-year-old Naveed Akram – has been charged with 59 offences
“It’s clear that it is an extremist position of a perversion of Islam, which shows its position through support for ISIS,” Mr Albanese said. “These people weren’t shy about their motivation.”
The father, who lived in suburban Sydney, had licences to own six rifles.
Court documents released on Dec 22 showed the pair conducting firearms training at a rural location that police suspect to be in New South Wales.
“The idea of getting to zero guns in our community is one that we can’t get to,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said at a press conference in Sydney on Dec 22. “But we can make a major step in dramatically reducing the number of firearms.”
Mr Minns has called for a state royal commission into the terrorist attack, a move backed by Mr Albanese even as he resists calls for a broader, federally-led inquiry.
“The idea that we would have multiple royal commissions as well as a review running at the same time, is going to simply delay action,” Mr Albanese said. BLOOMBERG
