Not that long ago, seeking a meeting of federal, state and territory leaders in the hope that a problem could be resolved was a laughable notion.
The flabbily named Council of Australian Governments, better known as COAG, was long derided as a forum where “good ideas go to die”.
Then came the pandemic.
Prime minister Scott Morrison, and his eager eye for a marketing opportunity, rebranded the forum, adopted the name National Cabinet and vowed it would be less bureaucratic, it’d be nimble and limit what he saw as irritations like formalities and paperwork.
Almost immediately it was a success.
Leaders put politics aside and worked together to pursue solutions in the national interest.
But this isn’t 2020. The pandemic’s emergency footing has eased, leaders have changed and the significance of the group gathering to meet isn’t what it once was.
It’s perhaps why Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was so resistant to bringing leaders together for a national cabinet meeting on anti-Semitism.
Albanese pushed to meet
As late as Monday evening, the prime minister was still resisting calls for a national cabinet meeting.
Repeatedly, and for more than a month, he had insisted the federal task force he assembled to counter anti-Semitism was the best forum to combat the attacks.
And it’s not like it hasn’t been working.
Late last week, the Australian Federal Police confirmed Operation Avalite had laid its first charges, with a 44-year-old western Sydney man charged with allegedly making death threats to members of a Jewish organisation.
Since October 7, 2023, his own government has introduced laws to make it a criminal offence to display hate Nazi hate symbols, outlawed doxxing and established envoys for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. On Friday the words ‘F*** Arabs Israel > Palestine‘ were graffitied on the wall of a supermarket in western Sydney.
In the end, Albanese’s resistance couldn’t be sustained.
One image was all it took for his defences to come crumbling down.
The sight of flames licking the door of a childcare centre, from which the fire’s orange glow illuminated the graffitied words “F*** the Jews”, left Albanese with few other options.
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Within hours, Albanese would be on the scene in south-east Sydney, standing alongside police and NSW Premier Chris Minns.
The PM called it a “despicable and horrifying crime”. Minns called those responsible “animals” and that “these bastards will be round up”.
By the day’s end, Albanese and Minns would sit in a hastily arranged national cabinet meeting, the outcome of which dashed hopes among those that there would be immediate and meaningful change.
Not a lot can be done in 67 minutes
It’s easy to just dismiss a meeting of national cabinet as hot air. But as COVID showed us, bringing together the nation’s leaders helps signal the importance of an issue, it shows the public that those in charge are taking an issue seriously.
But when a press release is being released on a meeting’s outcomes 67 minutes after the meeting started, it’s easy to get the picture that the “meaningful legal reform” being called for from people like anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal wouldn’t be happening — at least not now.
Instead, the national cabinet press release vowed leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to stamp out anti-Semitism.
It detailed that the federal police task force was investigating 15 of the 166 reports it had received since its formation. It also released the latest number of arrests and charges from NSW and Victorian police efforts. Foreign interference was also being investigated as potentially being behind the attacks.
Then came the kicker. A database would be established to track anti-Semitic crime, incidents and behaviours. You can only imagine the fear that must have struck through those responsible for the attacks of late.
Almost immediately, Albanese was facing criticism for the outcomes, as far away as Israel, where the country’s deputy foreign minister told the ABC that words were not enough and she feared someone would need to be murdered before Australia adequately responded to anti-Semitism — comments rebuked back in Australia.
But on the “meaningful legal reform” Segal was seeking, that was punted to the nation’s attorneys-general. It’s not an unreasonable move, given changes in state and federal criminal laws will require legislation to pass parliaments.
The Coalition insists that it would change federal laws to ensure anti-Semitic offences would be punished with mandatory minimum jail terms. Labor’s national platform opposed mandatory sentences yet in government the party adopted the policy in response to a High Court ruling on immigration detention.
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Everything is political before an election
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been at the forefront of calls for a national cabinet, describing a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne as a national crisis, accusing Albanese of letting the issue “fester”.
With an election potentially just weeks away from being called, Dutton hasn’t been afraid of making the incidents political.
Same too Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have directly linked attacks on synagogues and Jewish communities to decisions Australia was taking at the United Nations in New York.
Dutton on Tuesday took his rhetoric to a new level.
He alleged Australia was home to “rolling terrorist attacks” and that Albanese had been “dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting”. On Wednesday he foreshadowed “this is going to escalate to a point where somebody is going to lose their life”.
Albanese had hoped a ceasefire in the Middle East would help bring down the temperature in the Israel-Gaza debate in Australia.
It’s a sentiment shared by police and intelligence chiefs, who have implored politicians to cease calm their rhetoric.
This week has shown few signs of that being realised.
