Understandably, many of the Jewish faith are calling for a federal royal commission into the Bondi atrocity. So is the federal opposition. But is it the best option? Would it truly serve the interests of Jewish community and the general public?

This must be the test, not the number of people demanding it and the vociferousness of their demands.

Within a few days of the atrocity, we knew a lot about the accused gunmen. The son had come to the attention of ASIO in 2019 and in October of that year ASIO began assessing him because of his connection to members of a NSW Islamic State cell. About two years later, ASIO advised NSW Police that the son had been associating with Islamic extremists – well before police granted a gun licence to his father and accomplice.

The son was placed on a “known entity management list” around 2021. Yet NSW Police issued his father a gun licence in 2023.

For most of November 2025, father and son travelled to southern Mindanao in the Philippines, a place known for its Islamic jihadist activity, about two weeks ahead of their alleged attack.

Some advocating a royal commission argue that federal security agencies and the NSW Police should have pieced together this information. But that will be tested by the inquiry announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and led by former defence departmental secretary and ASIO chief Dennis Richardson.

If a federal royal commission........

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