Minns gives PM a lesson in how to respond to antisemitism

Here is a tale of two Labor leaders. On Friday night, Premier Chris Minns was at Sydney’s Central Synagogue, supporting a community stunned by a firebombing attack on one of its places of worship. Not in its backyard this time, but in Victoria.

“I understand that the Jewish community of Australia gathers tonight under a dark cloud,” Minns told the Shabbat service. “I am heartbroken at that fact.”

Premier Chris Minns outside the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra last month.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Minns was unequivocal in his description of what had taken place overnight at Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue. “A holy synagogue, set ablaze in what is an act of terrorism.”

Contrast this to Anthony Albanese. The prime minister did not label the attack as terrorism on Friday, as Minns did. Rather, he waited until Sunday, but not before he was slammed by the Murdoch-owned media, which was demanding he make the call. In fairness, Albanese wanted to give the police time to make that declaration. By Sunday, however, it was clear that his muted stance was not sustainable.

From his “personal perspective”, Albanese finally said on Sunday, “it certainly fulfils that definition of terrorism”. Police confirmed this the next day. It still took until Tuesday for the prime minister – who has access to his own plane – to visit the burnt-out synagogue. It was four days too late.

Albanese had already been photographed playing tennis at Perth’s Cottesloe Tennis Club on Saturday. He had earlier visited the Perth Hebrew Congregation in Menora, where he attended a bar mitzvah. By the time he visited the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne’s Ripponlea on Tuesday, he was engulfed in a scrum of hecklers. As he attempted to calm tensions, it was hardly the scene he’d hoped for.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Rabbi Shlomo Kohn inside the blackened shell of the fire-bombed synagogue in Melbourne on Tuesday.

News Corp did not hold back in attacking Albanese’s tennis match, although Opposition Leader Peter Dutton did. After all, the Coalition does not have a great track record when it comes to going missing in action. Albanese’s hit of tennis was no match for Scott Morrison’s family holiday to Hawaii as Australia burnt.

But it does bring into question the prime minister’s political judgment and his ability to be agile when it matters.

The role of prime minister and premier are very different. While the leader of the Australia needs to respond to issues of national and international significance, state leaders are more practised in day-to-day crisis management. Bushfires, flood, train breakdowns. They are bread and butter for a premier. Regardless, Albanese looks increasingly flat-footed compared with Minns’ quick reactions.

After the Greta bus crash, in which 10 people died on their way home from a wedding, Minns was in the Hunter Valley the next morning. He was on a plane to Tokyo with his family when the horrific Bondi Junction stabbings ended the lives of six people. Minns turned around at the airport and flew home. After the Wakeley stabbing of Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, the premier was at Fairfield police station the next day to meet community leaders.

When Sydney’s eastern suburbs were targeted by vandals for the second time in a matter of weeks on Tuesday night, Minns again wasted no time. He was on TV and radio condemning the attack, in which a car was set alight and antisemitic graffiti was sprayed at Woollahra, home to synagogues and Jewish institutions. Then he held a press conference at Bondi, where he declared: “This was specifically designed to, in my view, incite hate and intimidate the Jewish community in Sydney.”

This time, on Wednesday morning, Albanese did not hesitate to declare the Sydney attack a “hate crime”.

Minns has been unrelenting in his support of the Jewish community since the October 7 attacks last year. At a function at the Israeli embassy on Friday, just hours after the Melbourne firebombing, Israel’s ambassador, Amir Maimon, told guests that Minns had already called him to offer his condolences. Minns was the only leader name-checked, although Albanese had already spoken to the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog.

It is worth remembering, of course, that the Labor leaders come from different starting points. Minns, from the Labor Right, sees his job as ensuring the party stays in the centre while Albanese, from the Left, co-founded the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group many years ago.

Minns’ unwavering support for Israel, however, is not without stinging criticism from some of his own. Labor MPs, especially those with large Muslim communities in western Sydney, fear a backlash. Minns dismisses any suggestion he is being one-sided.

“There’s little that can be said from the NSW Parliament that will affect peace in the Middle East, but could certainly rupture the peace here in NSW,” Minns said this year. “My responsibility is to the communities here in NSW – to keep them safe, to keep them secure and to ensure that they can live in their own city, free of persecution.”

Being a leader, especially in a crisis, is not a back-office job. Minns knows he must be seen to be doing something, as should the prime minister. But Minns’ agility is outpacing Albanese’s. As the PM has seen this week, it’s hard to catch up once the pace is set.

Alexandra Smith is state political editor.