My question is for the Prime Minister.

Parliament has passed laws to combat anti-semitism, hate, and extremism, but legislative measures are only one of a myriad of responses required to prevent terror attacks of the type that we saw in Bondi. You’ve called for a royal commission, but what are the other steps to address the underlying cultural, social, and economic factors which contribute to extremism? Will you commit to adequately resourcing the implementation of a national anti-racism framework, a comprehensive strategy commissioned by your government and released in November 2024?

The call to the Prime Minister.

I thank the Member for Bradfield for her question. Indeed, we do need to deal with a comprehensive response — not just to anti-semitism, but to building social cohesion as well.

I think the attack that we saw in Perth is an example of something that the authorities are dealing with. I’ll be meeting with the WA Commissioner, who was in the chamber earlier today, along with the AFP Commissioner, to be briefed on that at a later time, because that was a very serious incident that is being looked at being designated as an act of terrorism. The authorities are looking at that, and having received a preliminary briefing, I think it is quite extraordinary that there weren’t much more serious consequences of what occurred there in Perth.

Anti-semitism requires constant vigilance. It requires us to — we brought forward the legislation, of course, before the Parliament, and it is a fact that there was a considerable advance through legislating not just on guns but on hate speech. It didn’t go as far as the Envoy on Anti-Semitism’s report recommended, but nonetheless it did. It was a significant advance forward, and I thank all those who voted for that legislation in both the House and the Senate.

We’ll continue to engage across the board on these issues. The Member refers to extremism and to issues breaking down social cohesion. We have had incidents as well of so-called sovereign citizens being involved in the murder of police officers in Victoria and Queensland. There are a range of threats that are very real, including, of course, a number of incidents that have been publicised before the court involving myself and members of Parliament.

I think we need a broader conversation as a society as well about the impact of polarisation — the impact, as I’ve said, of social media pushing people towards more and more extremes, down these rabbit holes.