‘I haven’t seen Penny Wong shed a single tear’: Uproar over foreign minister’s response to the Bondi Beach massacre
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has been accused of going into hiding following the Bondi Beach terror attack, which left 15 people dead and 40 injured.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley launched a blistering attack on the Foreign Minister, criticising her for not attending memorials or funerals for the victims.
During a press conference on Monday, Ley struck the lectern and laid into Wong’s response.
‘I haven’t seen Penny Wong on the streets of Bondi. I haven’t seen Penny Wong at the vigil for 15 innocent murdered Australians,’ she said.
‘I didn’t see Penny Wong at Bondi last night on the eighth night of Hanukkah. I didn’t see Penny Wong attend a single funeral. I haven’t seen Penny Wong shed a single tear.’
Ley accused the Albanese government of being out of touch with the grief gripping the community.
‘If more government members actually came to the streets of Bondi and listened – and not just listened, but heard, heard the pain, heard the anguish, heard the call to action – we wouldn’t have the ridiculous remarks that she has made recently.’
Appearing on Sunrise on Tuesday morning, Ley doubled down on her comments.
Penny Wong (pictured) has been accused of going into hiding after the Bondi Beach attack
‘It was me expressing my anger and disappointment on behalf of the community to the government,’ she said.
‘That’s what it was. I will not tolerate, as I said, the weak response I have seen or ‘take the temperature down’.’
Ley then criticised the rest of the Albanese government, noting that very few Ministers were present at the vigil at Bondi Beach Pavilion.
‘Penny Wong was not there, Anthony Albanese was not there, members of the Labor cabinet were barely there.’
On Monday, Wong avoided calls to ‘say sorry’ after being asked whether the Bondi terrorism attack fallout was a ‘permanent stain’ on the Albanese government.
Her comments came after tense scenes on Sunday, when the Prime Minister was heckled and booed while leaving a vigil at Bondi Beach.
Challenged on whether the government’s handling of anti-Semitism was a permanent stain, Wong said she understood the trauma felt by the community.
‘What I’d say is we see there’s great grief, there’s pain, there’s trauma and there’s anger,’ she told ABC Radio.
Sussan Ley (pictured) refused to apologise for harsh comments made against Wong
‘We’ve had 15 Australians killed in an horrific, evil anti-Semitic attack on Jewish Australians, and all Australians feel such sorrow — as do I.
‘Ultimately, this attack is an attempt to divide us, and we will not let that happen.’
Pressed again on whether the government’s record had been damaged, Wong listed actions taken after the attack.
ABC host Sabra Lane then asked: ‘Is it also time to say sorry?’
The Foreign Minister declined to apologise.
‘Look, I think all of us wish that we were not where we are,’ she said.
‘We all wish that the ISIS-inspired terrorist attackers had been stopped. We all wish that anti-Semitism had not continued in this country.
‘Over and over again, as Foreign Minister, I said that we all needed to turn the temperature down.’
Mourners gathering outside Bondi Pavilion on Thursday where flowers were laid to remember the victims
Wong also defended opting for an inquiry into intelligence agencies led by former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson, instead of a royal commission.
‘The Prime Minister said we would co-operate with the state royal commission.
‘But again, if I can come back to why we want to ensure our agencies have the powers they need, we have to make sure that our national security arrangements are fit for purpose, able to keep people safe, and that we learn from any mistakes, if there were any made, in the context of these attacks.’
