Dear Prime Minister,

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Put simply, I and the majority of Australians, do not understand your decision not to hold a Commonwealth royal commission into one of the most horrific events in Australia's recent history.

The often-repeated excuse by you Prime Minister and several of your cabinet colleagues, that royal commissions take years is not convincing.

For example, the Leveson Inquiry in the UK, which arose after the disgraceful phone hacking scandal, did not. Public hearings (for part 1) took place between November 2011 and July 2012 and a 2000-page report was published in November 2012. Part two was abandoned.

If the refusal arises from concern about what may be revealed through the actions or inactions of government, should you not be prepared to accept the level of scrutiny that Australians witness from certain parliamentary committee hearings?

Should you not apply the standards you apply to the laws you pass in relation to accountability and transparency when they involve other public servants and the private sector; or is your refusal yet another exception being applied to members of parliament in the same way that truth in advertising is?

If your reluctance also relates in part to the public probing of highly questionable comments made by a former very senior member of the parliamentary Labor Party, are you putting party interests above the public interest?

Prime Minister, I know you have repeatedly said that this is not a time to create division in Australian society but doesn't the Bondi massacre demonstrate that it is a bit late to be running this argument? Wasn't the hate filled massacre a demonstration of a division that has been allowed to fester for several years now?

Sorry about all the questions, but would a royal commission........

© Canberra Times