Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prides himself with being in tune with the public mood. But in holding out for weeks against a royal commission into antisemitism he misjudged that mood, making Thursday’s backdown on his hardline opposition a humiliation for him.

He knew public feeling. In a pre-Christmas Resolve poll, 48% supported a royal commission. Only 17% opposed, with 34% unsure or neutral.

Unsurprisingly, Albanese is not admitting he was wrong, putting the most positive spin on his retreat. The government had listened, he said. He also sought to give the impression the royal commission announcement was part of a deliberate process, coming at the back-end of a series of other actions. And he’d wanted to have all the detail in place, including the commissioner chosen and terms of reference worked out, before an announcement.

Albanese has absolutely (finally) reached the right decision. But leaders should be held accountable, so it’s important to recall the reasons he’d been so categorical about in earlier maintaining this was not the right course.

A long-running commission would slow the response to the Bondi massacre, he said. He insisted the inquiry being undertaken by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson into the performance of the intelligence and security agencies, plus the planned toughening of federal hate speech laws, the national cabinet’s action on gun reform, and implementation of special envoy Jillian Segal’s recommendations on combating antisemitism, were enough.

Anyway, he argued, the New South Wales........

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