Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese must declare synagogue firebombing a terrorist attack
The firebombing of a synagogue has laid bare Anthony Albanese’s failure to protect us from the scourge of hatred, imported from offshore, metastasising like cancer in our community, writes Peta Credlin.
Peta Credlin
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Imagine the outcry if a mosque was bombed during Friday prayers? Imagine a political leader then brushing that off as an age-old hatred, and then wondering why his weak words have ricocheted around the world and been justifiably rebuked internationally?
For months I’ve been dismayed by the weak leadership in Canberra – the poor policy decisions, the reform inertia, the cheap politicking, the end of bipartisan foreign and defence policy, the energy trainwreck and the betrayal of our values to appease woke activists.
Today, though, I am ashamed.
And so many Australians are too as we have watched a weak and out-of-his-depth Prime Minister fail to protect us from the scourge of hatred, imported from offshore, metastasising like cancer in our community.
The bombing of a synagogue, with people inside it, is a clear act of terrorism. Any leader worthy of the name would formally declare it a terrorism event and deploy all the resources that the federal government has at its disposal to find and punish the perpetrators.
Yet instead of strength, we get weakness. Instead of moral clarity, we get excuses.
Have we ever had a more diminished individual lead our country?
Can you imagine John Howard looking at the events of September 11 and basically saying Americans brought it upon themselves? Because that’s what Labor implies with its even-handed response to Israel’s war of self-defence post October 7.
Can you imagine Tony Abbott being even-handed between ISIS and the West, or between Vladimir Putin and the innocent civilians his proxies shot down in MH17?
No, I can’t.
And nor can I imagine Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd or even Bill Shorten allowing a perception to form that Labor sees Hamas as some sort of liberation movement against Israel — because that’s the only conclusion you can draw from recent changes to UN votes on Palestinian statehood and support for ICC warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
The Albanese government barely mentions the hundred hostages still trapped in the tunnels of Gaza in a hell most of us can hardly fathom. Instead, by targeting Israel, the government has licensed the anti-Semitism that has now erupted into a clear act of terrorism.
Again, if this were the Howard or Abbott era, there would have been meetings of the National Security Committee of Cabinet, a formal press conference to reassure all Australians that action was being taken and the deployment of whatever resources were needed to protect us all, but in particular, our Jewish fellow Australians.
Instead, we get weak words from a weak man.
The Prime Minister should hang his head in shame and so too, every Labor MP who allows this to happen in their name. I know of ministers who talk tough to the Jewish community behind closed doors but where are they now? If they had the courage of their convictions, they would resign.
Instead, it will be up to voters to show the world what sort of country we want to be.
In a few months, maybe as soon as February, we will be in a federal election campaign. And, as important as are all the other issues before us, like a faltering economy and a failing energy system, plus genuine cost of living help, Australians have a moral choice to make.
Do we want more of this – division and weakness? Or do we want to feel proud of our leader, our country, our flag and the direction we’re headed?
Look at the latest Redbridge polling that says, while minority government is probable, the Coalition is likely to win at least nine seats, has an 82 per cent chance of being the largest bloc in the new parliament, and is “very competitive for minority government”.
I would go further, I think it’s now within reach for the Coalition to win in its own right.
There’s no mystery behind Labor’s woes because it’s been a woeful government. Apart from the failed Voice referendum, the Prime Minister’s only real passion seems to be emissions reduction, yet that’s what’s behind the government’s utter failure to deliver on its key election promise to cut power prices.
Last week’s national accounts showed almost no economic growth and what growth there was almost entirely due to the excessive government spending that’s standing in the way of an early cut in mortgage interest rates. What’s worse is that GDP per person, a proxy for living standards, went backwards for the seventh successive quarter.
Our record levels of immigration have kept headline growth positive – just – but the Treasurer’s boasting about a “soft landing” hasn’t fooled the public. Living standards have dropped by nearly 9 per cent since the election, the largest and most sustained household recession in seven decades.
On the key issue of whether people are better off than three years ago, the overwhelming answer is “no”.
This government’s response to almost every problem is to throw money at it. It is why inflation remains a headache for the Reserve Bank. It is why the size of government now exceeds 28 per cent of GDP – fully 4 per cent higher than before the pandemic.
Productivity is falling – so it sets up a productivity fund. Manufacturing is struggling – so it sets up a Made in Australia fund. But it’s much easier to spend money than to make a difference, especially when the problem is too much government in our lives.
Most governments make mistakes in their first term, but this one has doubled down on them rather than learning from them. It has no new ideas to make a second term better than its first. It is more intent on division and separatism, and more woke, than ever before.
And if it loses its majority, as looks almost inevitable, and needs to do deals with the Greens to survive, it will only get worse.
This is why even decent Labor people are starting to realise they can’t vote for Anthony Albanese because he’s just not up to the job, and that voting Labor risks a Greens-dominated parliament.
What these traditional Labor people know, the people who voted for Howard to end the 1990s recession, and voted for Abbott after the carbon-tax and boats crisis of the last hung parliament, is that a vote for Peter Dutton is not so much a vote for the Coalition but a vote to save our country and our future.
Yes, it really is that serious.
THUMBS UP
Everyone who stood up for Australia Day: The massive backlash against the foreign-owned pub chain trying to cancel January 26 says to me that everyday Australians are taking back their country. And, it’s about time!
THUMBS DOWN
Anti-Jewish terrorism: the bombing of the synagogue in Melbourne shows we must call this hate for what it is.
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Originally published as Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese must declare synagogue firebombing a terrorist attack
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