New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said on Sunday that Australian governments had failed to protect their citizens during the Bondi Beach massacre, speaking at a Hanukkah candlelighting and vigil.
Following the Bondi Beach Massacre, the federal and state governments announced a series of plans and legislation to counter rising antisemitism and extremism, including a proposal by Minns to ban Intifada chants.
Minns told thousands of participants at the Light Over Darkness commemoration that incitement had led to graffiti, arson attacks, and now murder, and it was Australia’s responsibility to combat hate.
The terrorist attack that killed 15 and wounded 40 during a Hanukkah party “highlighted a deep vein of antisemitic hate in our community. To excuse it as an aberration or a tragic single event is wrong, it will not do justice to the killed and wounded, and will not allow us to take steps to stop it from happening again.”
“I acknowledge that the government’s highest duty is to protect its citizens, and we did not do that one week ago,” said Minns. “That reality weighs on me heavily. We must accept that responsibility and use it to do everything and anything we possibly can to stop it from happening again.”
Despite humbling himself before the audience, Minns received standing ovations, as did NSW opposition leader Kellie Sloane, who was praised by NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip for rushing to Bondi Beach as the father and son terrorist team was still attacking.
Sloane, who praised Minns for his work in a moment of bipartisanship, said that she didn’t want to share her own experience, but had been urged to do so by Jewish leaders, because bearing witness had become important when denial and conspiracy theories were traded online.
Sloane related that she had come with a Hatzolah ambulance, which parked under a bridge while one of the gunmen was still firing from atop. She guided a boy and his father into the ambulance, put blankets over the dead, and held the hands of the wounded and “grief-stricken” who felt that they “hadn’t done enough.”
Sloane echoed Minns in arguments that hate speech made the violence possible, and over a year of ostracization and vandalism against Jewish community sites, “broken windows lead to violence.”
State gov't to introduce legislation proscribing 'globalize the intifada'
Minns announced on Saturday that the state government would introduce legislation proscribing inciting chants such as “globalize the intifada,” which called for a violent uprising in Arabic. Recent events have shown that “The chant ‘globalize the intifada’ is hate speech and encourages violence in our community. The chant will be banned alongside other hateful comments and statements,” said Minns.
The Monday legislation would also ban terrorist symbols such as those of ISIS and other terrorist organizations, and give police more powers to remove face coverings. The NSW government said in a Friday statement that it would introduce protest law reforms that would allow law enforcement to temporarily restrict public assembly due to the risk of harassment, intimidation, or violence.
“These reforms are about protecting people at a time of real vulnerability. They are about ensuring grief is respected, fear is not weaponised, and police can focus on keeping communities safe,” said Minns. “These powers are proportionate. They are not about suppressing views – they are about preventing intimidation, escalation, and violence.”
The NSW Jewish Board called the banning of the slogan “globalize the intifada” a “watershed moment” against “hate and incitement.” According to the Jewish group, the idea of proliferating the “intifada” looked like the Bondi Massacre.
“Globalising the Intifada means killing a Jew wherever you find one. It’s a call to violence, and it leads to violence,” said the Board.
The Board also praised the new powers for police to remove face coverings, as the right to protest did not include the right to hide one’s face while waving the flags of terrorist organizations. The protest reforms were a “measured” change, according to the organization, but more changes were needed to prevent protests outside synagogues.
Palestine Action Group Sydney said that while it didn’t have any planned protests, it condemned Minns’s protest reform as undemocratic, giving the government the power to ban protests for months.
“Those seeking to exploit the Bondi tragedy for their own political ends should be condemned, and their undemocratic proposals rejected,” the group said on Instagram on Friday.
The NSW government also on Friday had proposed a series of gun control reforms, putting a limit on the amount of firearms per individual, limiting magazine capacity, reducing license validity time, and restricting firearms by citizenship and criminal offenses.
The state government said that it would also participate in a gun buyback plan in line with the federal government.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had announced the plan last Monday as information emerged that one of the Bondi terrorists had six firearms licensed to him, though he was a resident and not a citizen.
“We’re getting dangerous guns off our streets with a national buyback,” Albanese said on X/Twitter on Friday. “Non-citizens have no need to own a gun. And someone in suburban Sydney has no need to own six. But that’s exactly what one of the terrorists from the weekend had access to. We’re working with the states and territories on tough new gun laws, and together we will buy back newly banned and illegal firearms.”
On Thursday, the Albanese government had also announced that it was adopting the counter antisemitism plan of its Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal. A subsequent legislative package would create hate speech offenses for preachers and leaders promoting violence, increase hate speech for the promotion of violence, and develop a list of organizations that are engaged in hate speech.
Hate could become an aggravating factor in online threat and harassment sentencing, and another offense would be created for racial vilification. The Home Affairs Ministry would be given new powers to cancel or reject the visas of those who “spread hate.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry responded coolly to the announcement, noting that the government was adopting recommendations made by Segal and ECAJ over the last two years.
“This suite of measures can only be regarded as a first step, but it is an essential one,” said ECAJ. “We warned of the risk of not dealing with antisemitism in this country promptly and effectively after October 7. It is an absolute tragedy that it has taken a massacre of Jewish and other Australians for that step to be taken.”
The NSW Jewish Board on Thursday welcomed the federal changes, noting that for too long antisemitism was proliferated by “hate preachers” until it was too late. The group also called on the federal government to ban chants like “globalize the intifada.”