The sad politics of a royal commission

Anthony Albanese has succumbed to enormous pressure initially driven by the media and then amplified by some politicians hell-bent on making political mileage out of a tragic event. Organised petitions around the country garnering influential support added to this pressure, as well as some of his colleagues saying to him that they thought this was the right thing to do. Not that his acceptance of a royal commission has stopped the criticism.

Now the appointment of the person to lead the commission, the distinguished former high court justice Virginia Bell, has also come under attack.

First Josh Frydenberg, who has been strongly urged by Liberal political figures to re-enter the political arena, was vocal in his concerns about Bell but he soon realised that such criticism would be regarded as churlish and unwarranted and backtracked to support her. That, however, has not stopped others from questioning her role investigating Scott Morrison’s usurpation of numerous ministerial positions without consulting the very ministers whose positions he had usurped, clearly a breach of the lowest bar of parliamentary protocols. It seems that even investigating a wrong-doing for which Morrison received parliamentary censure, was considered suspect by Albanese’s detractors.

The PM was right when he referred to past tragedies when our country came together. It seemed that because this one happened under a Labor government that was doing well, it was time to tear the country apart.

We need calm, not a commission

The Murdoch media presses for a royal commission into the tragic Bondi shooting. What has already become clear is that certain due processes were found to have been overlooked by ASIO and the police which potentially increased the probability of the tragedy happening that fateful day.

At present the government’s stance is urgency and unity rather than delay and division. They urge that the temperature be lowered after some sought to pour fuel on an inflammable situation. They opted to further tighten gun control and introduce new measures to stamp out hate crimes to curb antisemitism and acts of terrorism.

PM Anthony Albanese has ordered a review into the atrocity, overseen by the highly respected former intelligence chief Dennis Richardson. It could be more thorough in its outcomes but it may deem that further action is needed.

However, bear in mind that we did have a year-long royal commission into Robodebt and despite findings of it being “neither fair or legal” and there being potential corruption in the case of six public officials, their subsequent referral to the NACC did not result in one prosecution taking place.