The Labor Party Made Australia Safe for Antisemitism

Opinion article published in the Wall Street Journal, 19 December 2025.

Australia was a place of refuge for Holocaust survivors seeking safety and a new life. They joined a long-established Jewish community that helped to shape our modern socially cohesive nation. For Jewish Australians, the country represented safety, freedom and opportunity.

After the events of the past two-plus years, culminating in the Hanukkah Islamic Terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, Australia has forfeited this claim. The place to which Jewish people fled has now become a place some now feel compelled to flee. We are a broken-hearted nation. Australia has broken its promise to our Jewish community. 

The Labor Party, which has governed the country since 2022, must accept it’s share of responsibility for these events. Labor played a foundational role in Israel’s creation, but it has walked away from the Jewish state while antisemitism has taken root in Australia, particularly since Oct. 7, 2023. They have left our Jewish community feeling abandoned, alone and unsafe.  

Prior to Labor’s election in 2022, Australia’s support for Israel and the Jewish community was at a historic high-water mark under the Liberal Coalition Government I led. We joined the U.S. to oppose the shameful ritualized targeting of Israel at the United Nations. We ended Australia’s practice of abstention and voted against biased resolutions. Australia became a full member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, adopted its definition of antisemitism, increased funding for Holocaust museums, enhanced security for Jewish communities nationwide, and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

We listed both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations and called out Iran’s use of proxies to destabilize the region and attack Israel. We made clear that Israel could depend on Australia. That ended when Anthony Albanese became prime minister.

There can be no clearer condemnation of Labor than the praise it received from Hamas following Australia’s unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.  That decision created political and cultural space for antisemitism to flourish at home. Weekly protests culminated in opponents of Israel marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, alongside those calling for a globalized intifada, death to Israel Defense Forces, and the elimination of the Jewish state “from the river to the sea”, while displaying portraits of Iran’s supreme leader. 

At the same time, Jewish professionals, artists and journalists were doxxed. Jewish businesses were targeted and forced to close. Homes were vandalized with violent slogans. Synagogues were attacked, including firebombings while worshipers were inside. Jewish students were ostracized on campus, and academics were intimidated into silence or conformity with a rigid “activist progressive’ orthodoxy on Israel.

In this environment, it is unsurprising that antisemites bent on violence convinced themselves that their moment had arrived. The warnings were clear but the government, either cynically courting Muslim votes or recklessly unleashing forces it didn’t understand, failed to act. The result was catastrophic: 15 innocent people dead, many more permanently wounded, a community traumatized, and Australia’s reputation descrated.

Australia must now write a new chapter, one of resilience, recovery and renewal. We must honor those we mourn: a Holocaust survivor, a 10-year-old girl, a beloved rabbi, a Jewish philanthropist, a young tourist, a brave police officer and others whose lives were cut short. We honor them by confronting hard truths.

Australia has been manipulated by cynical anti-Israel and antisemitic activists. The root cause must be addressed. Antisemitism is the first weapon that must be disarmed. Specifically, in this case, extremist Islamic antisemitism. These terrorists were homegrown. Theyt were radicalized in Australia. The father arrived decades ago; his son was born here. That reality demands accountability.

Leaders within Australia’s Islamic community must reform the institutional structures governing their faith. Unlike other religious communities, there are insufficient standards for accreditation, discipline, oversight and accountability. Islamic leaders have a pastoral responsibility to protect their adherents from corruption and radicalization, to keep the wolves from the flock. This is a necessary obligation for any faith group in a liberal democracy. Christian denominations in Australia have learned this painfully, most notably through the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Government must also do better. Social-cohesion policy can’t be reduced to food festivals and cultural performances. It must include a security dimension. Under my government, social cohesion was integrated into our national-security framework through the Home Affairs portfolio. That approach has been abandoned.

Operational reviews following these attacks will identify further weaknesses, particularly in immigration screening, intelligence integration, gun laws and front-line policing. On Thursday the government belatedly said it would implement the recommendations of its own special envoy on antisemitism, which it ignored for nearly six months. These include enhanced visa screening for antisemitic views and visa-cancellation powers over foreigners who engage in antisemitic conduct. We’ll wait and see what actually get’s implemented.

The culture of permission for hateful protest, coercion and bullying, especially in publicly funded institutions such as universities, the arts sector and the Australian Broadcast Corp., must end. In many cases, the laws already exist. What is missing is political will to enforce them. 

Finally, Australia requires a comprehensive royal commission, as proposed by my former deputy leader, Josh Frydenberg. Such an inquiry must examine not only the events of Dec. 14, 2025, but the broader trajectory since Oct. 7, 2023, and the wider challenge of antisemitism in Australia. It must draw on expertise in security, counterterrorism, social cohesion, immigration and intelligence—not only law.

Australians are an optimistic people. Like our friends in Israel and the U.S., we believe in democracy and in the future. We have suffered a grievous blow, but we will recover. Above all, we must again honor the promise Australia made to its Jewish community and ensure this country is once again the safe haven and steadfast friend it once was. Am Yisrael Chai.