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The federal Opposition has put its contentious migration policy on hold, following the Bondi Beach mass shooting on Sunday.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley was expected to release the Coalition’s new migration policy before the end of the year, after stating that migration levels in Australia are too high.
Despite internal and external pressure to pursue a migration debate, Ley has put the policy on ice amid concerns about fraying social cohesion and the potential for a fresh debate to be inflammatory at an extremely sensitive time.
On Monday night, Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie posted a video on Instagram urging a debate on immigration weighted around Australian values in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack.
“This moment calls for a discussion on who stands by us and who stands against us,” declared the Perth MP.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and new recruit Barnaby Joyce visited the Bondi memorial on Tuesday.
“People coming here, are they going to join and be Australian and want to be Australian to assimilate in our society?” Hanson said.
“Don’t bring your hatred to this country. That’s my message.”
Sixteen people were killed on Sunday evening in an attack on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, including one of the two alleged gunmen.
One of the alleged shooters, Naveed Akram, who was born in Australia, has regained consciousness after being in a coma since the weekend attack.
The second alleged shooter, his father Sajid Akram, was an Indian citizen. He was shot dead by police.
Police alleged on Tuesday that they found homemade flags representing the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group in a car registered to the younger Akram, and they allege the attack was motivated by IS terrorist ideology.
Shifting focus from migration policy, Ley has chosen to concentrate efforts on establishing a task force dedicated to combating antisemitism and terrorism. This initiative will involve key Opposition leaders.
The taskforce’s members will include Ley and senators Michaela Cash, Jonno Duniam, James Paterson and Bridget McKenzie, as well as MPs Julian Leeser and Andrew Wallace.
“The terrorist attack at Bondi was an attack on the Jewish community and an attack on Australia itself. It was a line crossed that cannot be ignored,” Ley said.
“For too long, antisemitism has been allowed to grow in plain sight. What we saw at Bondi is the consequence of failure to confront extremism early and decisively.”
The task force is scheduled to engage in discussions with antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal this Wednesday.
“The prime minister has said he will do whatever it takes. Leadership now means doing the hard work, not delaying it,” Ley said.
“That must start with implementing the government’s own antisemitism envoy’s report in full, not shelving it or watering it down.”
Ley visited the growing Bondi memorial on Tuesday morning with Opposition education spokesperson Leeser, who is Jewish.
“How much longer must the Jewish community endure this wait? With 15 people already lost, action is imperative,” Leeser stated.
While antisemitism was discussed during a Monday meeting of state and territory leaders, the outcomes of the meeting focused on a national push for tighter gun control legislation.
“We will, as a coalition, consider sensible, proportionate examination of everything that comes from this government … but the National Cabinet that needs to happen is the one that we called for months ago, a National Cabinet on antisemitism,” Ley said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly said this week that his government is acting on recommendations from Segal’s report.
On Tuesday, former prime minister John Howard warned a federal push to tighten gun laws risked being a “diversion” to countering antisemitism.
“I do not want this debate, post this horrible event, [for] the focus on guns to be used as a pretext to avoid the broader debate about the spread of hatred of Jewish people and antisemitism,” he told reporters in Sydney.
NSW Premier Chris Minns argued the attack justified a response across both issues: “I think taking one action is not enough.”
