PM must return to Bondi and meet the moment |
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It took him four days, but Anthony Albanese finally conceded on Thursday that his government could and should have done more to stop the rise of antisemitism in Australia. His belated concession that “of course, more could always have been done”, in the face of the raw anger and overwhelming grief of the Jewish community, was the absolute minimum after more than two years of warnings and an escalating series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues and businesses.
Illustration by Simon Letch
The past week has been one of the most awful, bitter and partisan I have witnessed in more than 15 years of writing about federal politics. And Albanese, a partisan political warrior since the day he joined the Labor Party as a teenager, has struggled to meet the moment at times.
He has faced an escalating series of attacks from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, members of her frontbench, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Albanese and his comrades have said, both privately and publicly, that some of these attacks have been party-political.
There is an element of truth to that. Albanese has not been afforded the bipartisanship that Tony Abbott received from Bill Shorten after the Lindt Cafe siege, or the support John Howard received from the Labor opposition after the Bali bombings.
Yes, in some respects, this is unfair to Albanese. But those same Liberal politicians have........