Authorities could not have prevented the Bondi Beach terror attack, but there are major improvements that should be made to Australia’s counter-terrorism capability, a royal commission into antisemitism has found. Source: 9news.com.au.
The interim report from the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was published yesterday, less than five months after 15 innocent people were gunned down in the horror mass shooting.
It includes 14 key recommendations – five of which remain confidential – on how governments can tackle the anti-Jewish climate, all of which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed the federal government will adopt.
The report confirmed that the massacre could not have been prevented and that no legal or regulatory shortcoming contributed to the attack.
However it identified major improvements that could still be made to Australia’s counter-terrorism teams and how information is shared between agencies.
“No Commonwealth or state intelligence or law enforcement agency has suggested that it was prevented from taking prohibitive actions before or on 14 December 2025 by the then current legislative and authorising framework,” the report states. “In these respects, no issue requiring urgent or immediate action has been identified.”
Chief among the recommendations is for all states and territories to work with the federal government to implement the proposed gun buyback scheme and that a universal National Firearms Agreement should be legislated.
Mr Albanese said the government will respond quickly to the recommendations.
“We’re not sitting back and just reading this document. We’re acting on it,” he said.
“We support the recommendations, all of them.”
Mr Albanese described the interim report as a way to help Australia “understand what happened that day, to help us stamp out the hatred that drove the attackers and to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again”.
The recommendations were shared ahead of the final report, due by December 2026.
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First report into antisemitism royal commission recommends national gun buyback scheme, more counter-terrorism powers (By April Glover, 9news.com.au)
