Anthony Albanese entertains Labor donors, plays tennis at Cottesloe as Jewish Australians reel from Melbourne synagogue attack

Labor donors were entertained by Anthony Albanese over drinks on the banks of Perth’s Swan River, and he then played tennis with members of WA’s most prestigious lawn court club as Jewish Australians prepared for a vigil near the burnt-out synagogue.

Clockwise from left: Anthony Albanese has a hit at Cottesloe Tennis Club on Saturday; and poses for a selfie; while Josh Frydenberg visits the Melbourne synagogue.

Labor donors were entertained by Anthony Albanese over drinks on the banks of Perth’s Swan River on the day of the synagogue terror attack in Melbourne, and he then played tennis on Saturday afternoon in the leafy beachside suburb of Cottesloe, staying for afternoon tea with members of Western Australia’s most prestigious lawn court tennis club.

Surprise at the Prime Minister’s decision not to travel to Melbourne after the terror attack turned to shock on Monday as it emerged he had taken time to play tennis in the golden triangle of Perth real estate as Jewish Australians reeled and prepared for a vigil near the burnt-out Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea.

On Friday night, Mr Albanese was the star attraction at the Federal Labor Business Forum’s “End-of-Year Networking Event” at the Chevron building on Perth’s CBD foreshore.

Mr Albanese spent the night with party donors just hours after his first briefings on the firebombing and a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog over the incident.

The Australian understands the drinks went for 90 minutes. The event is designed to allow businesses to pay a premium to have access to senior ALP figures such as the Prime Minister.

Cottesloe Tennis Club president Rob Wilde told The Australian he was made aware about 2pm the next day that the Prime Minister would be visiting. He said Mr Albanese arrived about 2.30pm and stayed for two hours.

He was with former South Australian Labor premier Jay Weatherill, who now works in Western Australia for the charitable Minderoo Foundation founded by Andrew and Nicola Forrest.

Photographs provided to The Australian show the Prime Minister in tennis whites and shorts playing doubles in the sun.

“We had two sets of tennis and afternoon tea, and (he was) very sociable. He had a pleasant time with some of our members,” Mr Wilde said.

“He had all his own equipment. He came all ready and dressed to go … I played against him twice.”

The tennis took place the same weekend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was blaming Labor and the Albanese government for the wave of anti-Semitism in Australia.

Also that same day former treasurer Josh Frydenberg and ex-Labor senator Nova Peris put up a united front against anti-Jewish hate outside the firebombed synagogue.

Perth woman Elizabeth Pell took a photo with Mr Albanese at the tennis club, and posted to social media: “Not someone you meet everyday!”

When asked about the photos of the Prime Minister playing tennis, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said “our community has felt that the government has been paralysed by domestic politics, and unable to provide the leadership and reassurance that the worsening anti-Semitism situation demands of any government”.

“At times that paralysis has been perceived by us as abandonment. No senior member of the government has contacted me since the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue on Friday morning,” he said.

Mr Wilde said the Prime Minister was not campaigning or discussing politics during his time at the tennis club on Saturday afternoon.

When questioned at a press conference on Monday about his decision to play tennis on Saturday, Mr Albanese took advantage of a reporter’s mistaken understanding that he had played in the morning rather than in the afternoon, saying: “Well, I wasn’t playing tennis on the Saturday morning.”

Questioned further, he said: “That is wrong. I had six appointments on Saturday. After they had concluded, late in the afternoon, I did some exercise. That’s what people do.”

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Albanese’s appointments included a barbecue with community leaders on the foreshore in South Perth, an event at a peri-natal mental health clinic and a visit to the Perth Hebrew Congregation in Menora, where he addressed the Jewish congregation and attended a bar mitzvah. The Australian has been told Mr Albanese was with the congregants for about 30 minutes.

A spokesman for Mr Albanese told The Australian he had been invited by the rabbi to attend – “they reached out and invited us”.

Michael Levitt, president of the Perth Hebrew Congregation, said it was his understanding that Mr Albanese wanted to attend a synagogue in Perth on Saturday and “it was important that he was there”.

“It would not be fair to say that the Prime Minister’s office solicited an invitation. We openly welcomed his attendance,” Mr Levitt said.

“We want to take the positive from the exchange.”

Mr Levitt was not in the synagogue for Mr Albanese’s visit but said others had told him the Prime Minister spoke well when he addressed the congregation, that the visit was polite and respectful, and “what took place was genuinely normal and pleasant. There was no grandstanding”.

On Monday, The Australian obtained a highly critical letter to Mr Albanese from one of Western Australia’s most senior rabbis, David Frelich.

“As a proud Australian, I have a deep respect for you as Prime Minister. Yet it is precisely due to that respect that I feel the need to express my immense disappointment regarding your government’s inadequate response to the rise of anti-Semitism in our great nation,” the letter reads.

“Had you shown such strong moral clarity from the beginning, Prime Minister, you would have earned the respect of not only the Jewish community but all fair-minded Australians, which the great majority are.

“Sadly, by your very weak and ambiguous response to the horrendous rise in anti-Semitic incidents in our country, you have inadvertently ended up encouraging such incidents to rise.”

Additional reporting: Mohammad Alfares