"Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday the establishment of a Royal Commission into antisemitism and social cohesion as a direct response to the horrific Bondi Beach attack in December, which saw the ‘Hanukkah by the Sea’ festival turn into a scene of national tragedy. “Just 25 days ago, two gunmen armed with high-powered weapons went to Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah, and they murdered 15 innocent people,” Albanese said. The PM went on to say that since the attack, the government has focused on supporting victims and working with security agencies to prevent such a radicalised domestic threat from emerging again. “We brought together the national cabinet to fast-track tougher gun laws. We delivered new resources to our law enforcement agencies… and when Parliament returns, we'll introduce new laws to criminalise hate speech and hate preachers,” Albanese noted. While the Prime Minister initially suggested a narrower security review, he acknowledged that the scale of this tragedy demanded the most powerful form of inquiry available. “I've taken the time to reflect, to meet with leaders in the Jewish community, and most importantly, I've met with many of the families of victims and survivors of that horrific attack… The people who were there at Bondi Beach… should have been safe,” he said. Albanese described the Royal Commission as “the right format, the right duration and the right terms of reference to deliver the right outcome for our national unity and our national security.” He stressed that the commission is part of a broader effort to repair the nation's social fabric, adding, “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on all Australians.” The attack, which took place on December 14, was carried out by a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, who targeted a crowd of roughly 1,000 people with high-powered firearms and improvised explosives. Among the victims were a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor."