Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

Scott Morrison brands Albanese’s Bondi blame-shifting “pathetic”, accusing Labor of deflecting responsibility for rising antisemitism while expanding hate-speech laws and avoiding accountability for Islamist terrorism.

Scott Morrison has described Anthony Albanese’s blame-shifting for Bondi as “pathetic.”

The current Prime Minister accused the former PM of being responsible for the rise in antisemitism during question time.

Refusing to own the failure to defend Australians against Islamic terrorism, Albanese said,

“Let me be very clear: all governments should have done better.”

“The idea that antisemitism began two years ago with the change of government is false,” Albanese stated.

“Despite the surge in antisemitism on their watch, did the Morrison government appoint a special envoy to combat antisemitism? No.”

Labor’s ‘Hate Speech’ Laws Target Symbols and Speech, Not Islamism

Albanese then leveraged the attack on Morrison to talk up Labor’s “hate speech” legislation.

Boasting about his bans on speech and symbols, Albanese claimed that under the former PM, Australia went AWOL on combating “hate preachers and leaders.”

Albanese alleged that, unlike the Morrison government, Labor is all-in on the offensive against “hate”.

Trying to sell the point, Albanese took credit for Australia’s “first ever hate speech” laws, criminalising doxxing, creating a “hate crime” watchdog, banning Neo-Nazis and the Nazi salute.

The Labor leader then doubled down and added to the list his government’s eSafety war on “hateful online content.”

This included directing counterterrorism resources against “white supremacists.”

Nowhere in this list did Albanese mention “combating” Islamism or Islamic terrorism.

While distancing himself from responsibility for the rise in attacks on Jewish Australians, the Labor Prime Minister lamented the Bondi incident.

In a carefully worded non-apology, Albanese told the Lower House, “he was sorry the attack occurred, and that it occurred on his watch as Prime Minister.”

Deflecting responsibility back onto the Islamists, away from himself, and away from Islam, Albanese implied that blaming him and Islam was letting the attackers “off the hook.”

This “was an antisemitic terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, conducted by father and son,” Albanese asserted.

They perpetrated this attack “in the name of a perverted, murderous version, as they saw it, of Islam.” (Albanese unpacked this more here)

The event wasn’t random, he contested.

This “atrocity” was a “result of their choices and their actions.”

Saying he was “devastated, as all Australians are, at what occurred,” Albanese then blamed every government (including his own), not just Scott Morrison.

A ‘Pathetic’ Diversion: Former PM Slams Albo’s Leadership Failures

In a statement posted online, Morrison handed the “hate speech” hat back, saying Albanese’s accusations were a “pathetic” attempt to deflect away from Labor’s “leadership failings.”

Especially the December 14 Islamic terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering, which killed 15 Australians.

“Under his Government, Australia’s relationship with Israel was at a high-water mark,” Morrison hit back.

“I had productive and direct personal relations with all Israeli PMs.”

The LNP, he added, “supported Israel in the United Nations and recognised their true capital, we equipped our home affairs department to combat terrorism in vulnerable communities.”

It was the Albanese who “ended 75 years of bipartisan policy regarding Israel and the issue of Palestinian statehood.”

It was the Albanese government who “reversed policies including our programmes in Home Affairs to deal with security threats.”

Slamming Albo, Morrison said, it was Labor’s “empty and ambivalent response to the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel abrogated his responsibility for national leadership.”

This “created a dangerous vacuum that was filled by the worst streams of antisemitism this country has ever seen.”

Also, “Hamas never praised the actions of the LNP Government,” but they did praise the Australian Labor Party.

Hamas never praised the actions of my Government @AlboMP, but they did praise yours.

Wall Street Journal article published on 19 December, 2025https://t.co/H5ISaLXX91

— Hon. Scott Morrison AC (@ScoMo30) January 20, 2026

Albanese’s actions prove he is driven by “politics rather than principle.”

His remarks are a “delusional and cheap diversion,” Morrison concluded.

“On my watch, zero tolerance on antisemitism would have meant exactly that in practice and would have been evident throughout, especially following October 7.”