Anthony Albanese has announced a major review into intelligence and law enforcement processes in the lead-up to the Bondi beach attack, which will consider whether agencies have the right powers to keep the community safe.
Amid growing pressure for a commonwealth royal commission into the killing of 15 people at a Hanukah event last Sunday, Albanese said the former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) boss Dennis Richardson would lead a review of the agencies.
The four-month review is set to examine whether federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have the right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe.
The Bondi attack “reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation,” Albanese said in a statement on Sunday.
“Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond.”
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The former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, one of the prime minister’s highest profile critics since the shooting, called the announcement “wholly inadequate” and accused of Albanese of being afraid to call a royal commission.
“To use an Australian colloquialism, it’s bullshit,” he said.
Frydenberg – who is considering a tilt at returning to federal politics at the next election – said the departmental review “will not go to the heart of the issues and the radicalisation within our country, which has been allowed to explode on your watch”.
Asio’s director-general, Mike Burgess, offered full cooperation for the review. He said he had already initiated his own internal review of decision-making processes.
“If Asio is found to have made mistakes, we will own them and we will learn from them.
“Tragically, in this case we did not know about the attack before it happened. That is a matter of grave regret for me and my officers. It weighs on us heavily. But that does not necessarily mean there was an intelligence failure or that my officers made mistakes.”
Burgess said the investigation would give Asio an opportunity to address claims suggesting officers had failed to pass on relevant intelligence, defunded and deprioritised counter-terrorism, or cut experienced counter-terrorism officers, which he said were false.
Richardson is a former defence and foreign affairs department boss, and was director-general of intelligence and security from 1996 until 2005. A former ambassador to Washington, he has previously been tasked by the government to lead the review into the Australian submarine agency, a key organisation for the Aukus nuclear submarine deal.
Albanese said the review, to be supported by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, would build on the work of the Independent Intelligence Review, conducted by Richard Maude and Heather Smith and released in March.
It recommended more funding to boost capability across the country’s intelligence agencies, to maintain preparedness across areas including economic security, crisis warning and preparedness, and open source intelligence.
Albanese said Richardson’s review would be provided to the government by the end of April 2026, and confirmed its findings would be made public.
Asio and law enforcement agencies – including the Australian federal police – have come under pressure since two gunmen launched the attack.
The younger alleged shooter, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, came on to Asio’s radar in October 2019 for alleged associations with individuals involved in a reported Islamic State cell. Asio looked at Akram for a period of six months, but concluded he was not an ongoing threat.
NSW police have since confirmed Naveed and his 50-year-old father, Sajid, had travelled to the Philippines weeks before their alleged attack on the Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi.
Calls for royal commission
On Saturday, Albanese backed plans by the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, for a state-based royal commission into the terror attack, suggesting it provide a “comprehensive look” at the deadly shooting.
In the wake of the attack, the NSW government also said it would seek to introduce new laws that will ban slogans such as the pro-Palestinian phrase “globalise the intifada”, and will also move to ban hateful symbols in legislation to be introduced on Monday.
Minns has not provided details about the timing of a potential royal commission. He said he was confident the government could appoint a senior judicial officer to navigate the complexities of an inquiry running parallel to the criminal investigation.
The opposition had called on the prime minister to launch a commonwealth royal commission. The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, urged him to recall parliament on Monday to immediately legislate a response.
The oppposition home affairs spokesman, Jonathon Duniam, said a national review was necessary.
“As a result of this terrible set of events that have occurred, we should be having a full Commonwealth royal commission into every element of not only intelligence and security agencies and their roles in protecting Australia and finding ways to prevent this from happening ever again, but all elements of government decision-making in all states and territories and, of course, how we can get to the bottom of the rise of antisemitism in this country.”
Albanese convened the national security committee of cabinet again on Sunday, ahead of a planned evening visit to the Bondi memorial site for a commemoration one week after the killings.
Flags are being flown at half mast around the country, and Albanese has asked Australians to light a candle and put it in their front window and to observe a minute’s silence at 6.47pm, the time the shooting commenced last week.