Australia must take these six steps to prevent a repeat of Bondi terror attack

The Bondi atrocity has been the largest terrorist act on Australian soil. It is a stain on the nation. We must learn from this failure. There are six steps that we should take to avoid a repeat of the Bondi attack.

First, Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Muslim Brotherhood must now be proscribed. HT has become a petri dish for the disease that infects the minds of recruits to terrorism. The group was involved last year in violence outside a Melbourne synagogue forcing it to be evacuated.

It was part of the University of Sydney “encampment” and the wider pro-Palestinian unrest that has occurred in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7. There was the discovery of a since-deleted press release by the group that praised Hamas’s terrorism and urged neighbouring Muslim countries to “eliminate” Israel. 

That is significant, because the UK proscribed HT as a terrorist organisation in 2024 after the group had posted material on its website that celebrated the October 7 attack by Hamas. The ban means the group’s resources are terrorist property and may be seized. Its ability to operate and advocate has been significantly degraded because of the offences attached to membership of, and expressing support for, a listed terrorist organisation. 

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated last week that he had wanted to take the same action for some time. But he said he was advised that the group did not meet the legal threshold for banning. That is agencies telling the minister the ball is in his court as a legislator and the government should urgently amend the law and act as the UK and multiple countries, including the Palestinian Authority, have done. We can no longer take chances with the ideology that drives this and other groups, and whose indoctrination may motivate members to turn fiery words into explosive deeds. The minister announced on December 18 that the thresholds relating to hate speech would be lowered. 

It is to be hoped these comments mean that lowering thresholds will also apply to proscribing HT as a terrorist organisation or the measures will simply not be enough.

When it comes to hate speech, the government needs to show leadership under the law rather than leave the responsibility and expense to organisations such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, as happened in a recent successful complaint.

Second, the government should empower our agencies with the state-of-the-art tools to prevent Bondi 2.0. The bright red thread existed: one of the terrorists was known to have had connections and sympathies with Islamic State from 2019. Continuing monitoring of the individual, and those connected to him, was demonstrably warranted. 

AI platforms can meet the challenge of dealing with the vast amount of data that has to be processed. It can help break down federal/state information silos to enable an alert regime for analysts regarding persons of interest. Travel arrangements, weapons purchases, financial dealings and connections, and effectively tracking sales of explosive precursor materials are among the data points that can quickly vector to an urgent action demand.

But our agencies have been held back from adopting new technology by outdated infrastructure that does not have the computing power to host the available tools. The action to fix this and acquire those tools should be urgently accelerated.

Third, we have much to do in the fight against propaganda and misinformation – amplified by foreign intelligence agencies – in the social media feeds infecting our discourse and the minds of our kids. There are three projects the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is pursuing to fight back. This should be prioritised in our technological collaboration under AUKUS Pillar II. 

Fourth, we must reject the language of incitement in demonstrations and commentary that substitutes the terms “Zionist “or “Zios” for Jews to legitimise anti-Semitism. Zionism is the legitimate view that Jews should have the right to live safely in their own country. Martin Luther King said criticising Zionism is anti-Semitism. The Albanese government may ban words such as “river to the sea” or “globalise the intifada”. But it’s not taboo for people to still attack an entire country, calling Israel genocidal, a demonstrably false claim in the absence of any evidence that would meet the legal standard to justify the assertion, colonisers despite Jews having a multi-millennial indigenous connection to the land, or that Zionism equals Nazism. This baseless demonisation of Israel has become normal. We must start to challenge that narrative.

Leadership is essential so that comments such as those by Bob Carr three months ago on the “One Path” fundamentalist Muslim outlet, directly attacking the Australian Jewish community, echoing anti-Semitic tropes that were then amplified by neo-Nazis in front of NSW parliament, should have been called out and condemned by the Labor movement. 

Similarly, our media outlets need to ensure standards are upheld internally. For example, in recent correspondence with a colleague of ours a senior ABC journalist recently stated that it was “perfectly legitimate” to say, “the Jews are a cruel people”.

Fifth, our education systems should reinforce basic national values. The Prime Minister has noted that the National Holocaust Memorial Education Centre project in Canberra will take on this mission, being part of the education tourism that brings 165,000 kids from around the nation to Canberra every year. But it needs more funding support to become a reality. 

Finally, we must exert far greater effort in our education system, as admitted by Education Minister Jason Clare, to eradicate the evil of “othering” and racism. This means instilling the common and Australian foundational values that will make diversity in this country truly successful. Multiculturalism doesn’t mean the freedom to demonise other segments of our community.

It is also noted NSW has plans to establish a royal commission. But given the importance of federal agencies – the specific statutory regimes that apply to them and the national policy implications at play – it would be better to establish a commonwealth royal commission to examine both anti-Semitism and counter-terrorism, and not just rely on the review by former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson into whether federal security agencies and police have the right counter-terrorism powers, resources and structures.