Australia’s Labor government forced police to focus on the “far-right” instead of radical Islam in the lead-up to the Bondi terror attack, insiders have claimed, sparking calls for “relevant ministers” to be questioned.
A former senior Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism commander wrote in a submission to the royal commission on anti-Semitism that the agency was under external pressure to balance the greater threat of Muslim terrorism with that of so-called right-wing extremism.
Ex-prime minister Tony Abbott confirmed on Thursday that he had been told the same thing by police officers, and said the commission should be reopened so those responsible can be held to account.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott confirms police told him Labor forced them to focus on the “far-right” instead of radical Islam in the lead-up to the Bondi terror attack.
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“What about those claims, Tony, that the Albanese government forced counter-terrorism police to shift their focus from Islamic extremism, which police tell me was the number one issue, to concerns about the far-right, which police again say, between Islamic extremism and the far-right, there’s daylight,” News24 host Peta Credlin asked Mr Abbott.
“Surely the government, if it’s true that they meddled with the focus of counter-terrorism police, have got to be called to account.”
Mr Abbott replied that “counter-terrorism officers in the field … have said to me that that is exactly the instruction they were given”.
“The worst terrorist atrocity happened on [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese’s watch,” Mr Abbott said.
“That is why the relevant ministers need to be called and asked what they knew, what they did and what they should have done.”
The commander also alleged in his submission that the AFP was aware of severe staff shortages, including “critical vacancies”, in the lead-up to the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
The AFP was criticised after the massacre for using its newly formed National Security Investigations (NSI) teams to carry out a series of high-profile arrests over social media posts, including of nationalist activist Joel Davis, who was arrested in Bondi and charged over an alleged Telegram post while the ISIS-inspired shooters were planning their attack undetected.
The AFP revealed in written answers to the royal commission last month that it spent $152 million on Counter Terrorism in 2024-25, compared to $523 million on Protection – guarding politicians and government buildings – out of a total of $1.87 billion.
The second largest spend was $305 million on Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime (TSOC), followed by $279 million on ACT Policing and $164 million on International Missions.
Earlier this week Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced the AFP’s latest Corporate Plan and laid out her top five priorities, which included “social cohesion” and “supercharging global operations”, but not counter-terrorism.
Header image: Left, Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram (supplied). Right, Joel Davis being arrested weeks before the attack (AFP).
