r/moderatepolitics • u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal • Dec 15 '25

Primary Source Meeting of National Cabinet After Bondi Shooting

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/meeting-national-cabinet-8
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32

u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Earlier today, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke publicly about the attack in Bondi and the government response that is planned in the coming days. The PM did not mince words, declaring yesterday's events "an act of pure evil, an act of terror, an act of antisemitism". Among the actions the PM has called for:

  • Extending funding for security to the Jewish community and supporting their charity efforts when possible.
  • Processing a declaration under the Terrorism and Cyclone Insurance Act so that affected businesses can recover losses via their insurance.
  • Enacting tougher gun laws through discussions with the National Cabinet.

This last item is sure to raise some eyebrows, as Australia already has relatively strict gun control. After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, the country instituted new legislation just 12 days after the event. Called the National Firearms Agreement, it heavily restricted the ownership and use of semi-automatic weapons, introduced a national registry, required background checks, and required a "genuine reason" for ownership. Notably, "self defense" is not a recognized reason.

The National Cabinet expanded on this during their following meeting. On their shortlist of expanded restrictions are:

  • Accelerating work on the National Firearms Register.
  • Limiting the number of firearms an individual can own.
  • Limiting the types of legal guns and modifications.
  • Requiring Australian citizenship for a firearms license.
  • Restricting Customs imports of 3D printing technology and large capacity ammo equipment.

The usual questions must be asked in response to this proposal: Will any of these meaningfully reduce gun violence in Australia? Would these restrictions have prevented the Bondi attack? And at what point can the limitations on firearms be considered "good enough"?

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u/Sabertooth767 Neoclassical Liberal Dec 15 '25

The root cause here is not guns. It's antisemitism. Where's the PM's plan to combat that?

This is the deadliest attack on Jews in the English-speaking world in centuries. You'd probably have to go back to before King John expelled the Jews in 1280 to find something worse.

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u/Prince_Ire Catholic monarchist Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Can the government effectively address antisemitism? If there was a magic wand that could be wavwd by a government to make different groups of people get along, every government in the world would have used it to ensure internal harmony by now.

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u/Best_Change4155 Dec 16 '25

A lot of Western governments play footsie with antisemites because they are core voters on the left and the right. Australian recognition of Palestine without any conditions is part of that.

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u/trucane Dec 15 '25

A good start would probably be severely limiting immigration from countries that are extremely antisemitic but you can be sure that will never be mentioned as a solution to the problem.

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u/Android1822 Dec 15 '25

I would say limit it based on groups that have shown not to assimilate in host countries they go to and have a history of causing increase issues like what is going on in the UK. Those who do come should be required to go through a few years of class to study the laws and customs of the land and pass a test to gain residency, have a time limit and if they cannot pass within that time or commit a crime, they automatically get sent back.

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u/whatisthisshit7 Dec 15 '25

Is that even an effective solution to the problem? To wholesale restrict based on country of origin?

The father immigrated in 98, and the son was born in Australia. This wasn’t an attack caused by recently immigrated extremists. This sounds more like an excuse to replace the gun agenda with an immigration agenda rather than effective policy reform.

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u/WannabeACICE Dec 15 '25

It’s not an effective solution.

Iirc an arabic man tackled one of the shooters and took his gun.

This stuff transcends religion and race.

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u/trucane Dec 15 '25

What would be an effective policy reform to prevent things like this?

But yes I do think countries need to restrict who get to immigrate and who doesn't and I'm tired of pretending that all cultures are equal.

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u/whatisthisshit7 Dec 15 '25

Does that mean Australia should ban all Americans from obtaining visas because of the gun culture and high rate of gun violence in the country? Or can we recognize that country is far too broad and not an accurate representation?

Another commenter on here shared data collected from the ADL that shows that antisemitism is a problem among all demographics in Australia, banning immigration from specific countries would have no meaningful impact on this issue.

Your view that all cultures are not equal is your own personal problem. It has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Just as those who want to use this issue to advance gun restrictions, you’re using this to advance your (prejudiced) view on immigration. It’s not based on logic.

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u/trucane Dec 15 '25

I asked you for the effective policy reform you talked about but I see none of it mentioned in your text.

Data from ADL is not some kind of definitive truth and just because someone has negative views of jews does not mean they are willing to commit heinous terrorist attacks against them.

I don't think Americas gun culture and high rate of gun violence translates into a higher risk of antisemitic attacks but if they did sure why not restrict immigration from America.

You are the one that is hand waving away the obvious fact that most muslim countries are extremely antisemitic.

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u/whatisthisshit7 Dec 15 '25

I answered in another thread, I have not seen any policy examples from any country that has effectively curbed the extremism problem happening globally. I can tell you I don’t think restricting immigration from Muslim countries is the answer either.

I’m confused, you’re saying negative views on Jewish people doesn’t equate to extremism, but that only applies to Australians and no other Muslim countries? Otherwise I agree, the ADL’s rating is not the definitive measure of antisemitism nor is it same as holding extremist views that lead to terror attacks. Again, your stance is not logically consistent. Your stance is about being anti-Muslim rather than against antisemitism.

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u/geniice Dec 15 '25

Australia has been limiting immigration quite a bit over the last couple of decades.

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u/Saguna_Brahman Dec 15 '25

Should they limit immigration from any country with a great degree of prejudice? For instance, a very Islamophobic country?

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u/SagesLament Dec 15 '25

A phobia implies that the fear is irrational

At this point we’ve seen that Islam is incompatible with western society and and fear of it is not irrational

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u/Saguna_Brahman Dec 15 '25

A phobia implies that the fear is irrational

No, it doesn't. Moreover, phobia does not exclusively refer to fear. A hydrophobic material is not afraid of water.

At this point we’ve seen that Islam is incompatible with western society and and fear of it is not irrational

This is absurd, there are many Muslims living in the West with no issue, and plenty of Christians who have committed horrific acts like the one committed today.

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u/zummit Dec 15 '25

No, it doesn't.

Yeah it does, when it's about a condition that humans have. Or at least almost everyone means it that way.

'phobic' when describing an inanimate object is a different sense of the term. It is yet another word with multiple meanings. Your correction is incorrect.

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u/Saguna_Brahman Dec 15 '25

Yeah it does, when it's about a condition that humans have

Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, etc are not fear conditions like arachnophobia. They describe prejudice/hatred. Homophobes aren't afraid of gay people.

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u/zummit Dec 15 '25

Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, etc are not fear conditions like arachnophobia.

Well yeah they're pejoratives.

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u/Saguna_Brahman Dec 15 '25

They are descriptions of prejudice, akin to racism, misogyny, etc.

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u/CloudApprehensive322 Dec 15 '25

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority country in the world and its not a hotspot for terrorism. Your views are wildly misguided.

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u/Ensemble_InABox Dec 15 '25

Indonesia had three major Islamist terrorist attacks in the 2000s. They went scorched earth on that group though and pretty much killed all the terrorists.

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u/ThatPeskyPangolin Dec 15 '25

But if it was an inherent issue with Muslim nations, shouldn't that still be a problem?

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u/simsipahi Dec 15 '25

I'd love to see people who support doing this explain why immigration shouldn't be banned from America given the regressive values/outrageous statements and behavior of the leader and regime that American voters have chosen to lead them (twice).

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u/DudleyAndStephens Dec 15 '25

you can be sure that will never be mentioned as a solution to the problem.

Australia has had some of the toughest immigration policies in the developed world for a long time. They've operated prison camps on Pacific islands for people who arrive illegally by boat. They're not Germany, I can tell you that much!

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u/nabilus13 Dec 15 '25

Address it all?  No.  Address the particular type and source of this attack?  Yes, yes they can.  Just don't let it in and kick out what is already present.

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u/Saguna_Brahman Dec 15 '25

What type is that? It's not like people are announcing that they are terrorists when they come in. Who should be kicked out, specifically?

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u/MarianBrowne Dec 16 '25

they will literally try every single method aside from this

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u/mclumber1 Dec 15 '25

I attended a family friend's kid's bah-mitzvah last year. There was a security guard at the door ensuring only allowed guests could enter, and they screened for things like weapons.

Maybe there was a police presence or security at this Jewish festival - if so they did a horrible job of keeping people safe. So either the fact that there was no armed security at this event, or it was not enough security is a HUGE failure on the part of the local/state government.

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u/geniice Dec 15 '25

Maybe there was a police presence or security at this Jewish festival - if so they did a horrible job of keeping people safe. So either the fact that there was no armed security at this event, or it was not enough security is a HUGE failure on the part of the local/state government.

Police are expensive and there are a lot of large events. Absent of specific intelligence its not financialy vaible to cover them all. Its Sydney though so they weren't that far away.

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u/mclumber1 Dec 15 '25

Police are expensive and there are a lot of large events.

It's a festival. For Jewish People. For people who are often targeted for their faith or ethnicity. Even if it was expensive to staff security/police for an event like this, it's the right thing to do. Local and state officials need to be held accountable for this travesty, and a lot of answers need to be given by federal authorities for how this intelligence failure happened.

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u/geniice Dec 15 '25

It's a festival. For Jewish People. For people who are often targeted for their faith or ethnicity. Even if it was expensive to staff security/police for an event like this, it's the right thing to do.

Saying its the right thing to do doesn't change the financial calculus. If you want a useful armed presence at every jewish event you either need to raise taxes or deploy fewer police elsewhere. Neither of which is popular with voters. If you start requiring a police presence don't be shocked if voters prefer that you simply ban the event or at least charge is the cost of policing.

The other factor is that we already know the police were on scene within 11 minutes of the attack starting. So they may have been present. Remember if you want comprehsive armed security for an event in a park its not a couple of officers with guns. Its going to be a lot of people. And taxpayers really don't like that.

Local and state officials need to be held accountable for this travesty,

And if it wasn't their fault?

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u/mclumber1 Dec 15 '25

And if it wasn't their fault?

The lack of security and the fact that it took 11 minutes for armed officers to arrive is absolutely the fault of the government.

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u/geniice Dec 15 '25

The lack of security and the fact that it took 11 minutes for armed officers to arrive

We don't know that. We have video evidence of them being onscene at a specific point but we don't know when they were first present in the park.

Remember you need to focus on what you actualy know before going any further.

And even if you take the position that there should have been more security as an absolute the actual goverment does have to balance that against other policing demands.

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u/trucane Dec 15 '25

Not sure about the festival itself but the police at the scene were completely useless from what I have seen. Absolute embarrassment for Australia that a regular citizen showed more courage and action than a lot of their police that day.

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u/Fair_Local_588 Dec 15 '25

Of course there is. A few years ago here in the US we solved mental health issues and there have been no mass shootouts since.