Australian PM apologises over Bondi attack, calls for tougher hate laws 

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised to the Jewish community over last week’s Bondi Beach attack, which killed 15 people at a Hanukkah ceremony, and called for stricter laws against hate speech and hardline violence.

Speaking on Monday, a week after Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in decades rocked the nation, Albanese promised steps to protect Jewish Australians.

“As prime minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I’m prime minister, and I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced,” he said.

Albanese pledged that his government would work to protect Jewish Australians and their right “to practise their faith, to educate their children and to engage in Australian society”.

Australian authorities continue to investigate the December 14 attack, whose victims included a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor, as an act of “terrorism”.

Police believe suspects Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, were inspired by ISIL (ISIS), saying the group’s flags were found in a car they drove.

While Sajid was shot dead by police, Naveed is still recovering from his bullet injuries in hospital and has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism.

In a court filing, police said the men recorded videos condemning “Zionists” and explained “their motivation for the ‘Bondi attack'”.

The suspects are believed to have spent months “meticulously” planning the attack, including carrying out “firearms training” in the New South Wales countryside, according to the court documents.

“We’re not going to let the ISIS-inspired terrorists win. We won’t let them divide our society, and we’ll get through this together,” Albanese said in his remarks.

“Urgency and unity is what we need,” he said and called for bipartisan support for “creating an aggravated offence for hate preaching”.

Albanese, whose approval ratings appear to have suffered since the attack, has also proposed far-reaching reforms on gun legislation, despite Australia already having some of the strictest limits in the world.

The government of New South Wales, the state where Bondi Beach lies, sought to introduce strict new draft gun laws on Monday, as well as a ban on displaying “terrorist” symbols.

The new rules would cap the number of guns an individual can own to four, or 10 for exempted individuals like farmers.

Authorities would also be able to prohibit protests for up to three months following an incident deemed “terrorism”.

The reforms are expected to pass parliament this week.

“We can’t pretend that the world is the same as it was before that terrorist incident on Sunday,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters. “I’d give anything to go back a week, a month, two years, to ensure that didn’t happen, but we need to make sure that we take steps so that it never happens again.”