‘No one did enough’: Governor-General reflects on Bondi massacre

In the wake of the Bondi Chanukah shootings, the Governor-General Sam Mostyn is among the many Australians asking themselves if they could have done more to prevent the worst antisemitic attack in Australia’s history.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Jewish Independent, the Governor-General talked about her imperative to “show up for Australia” in an hour of need, the misplaced anger that has been vented on her since last week’s terror attack, and her conviction that Australia’s social fabric is robust and has not frayed, despite the faultlines that have opened up during the past two years.

Mostyn says that as she grasped the enormity of the massacre, she was filled with a personal responsibility to “hold things for the country and to do it in a way that was absolutely authentic, and to trust my own instincts. Everything we do from that moment on would be in service of the Australian community, but firstly, for the Jewish community.”

She has reflected on the warnings and cries for help from her Jewish friends and the broader community more broadly over the past two years and admits that she found herself wanting. “I'd been to synagogues. I'd been at the service last year, exactly a year ago, at Central Synagogue.

“At Shabbat dinner afterwards, the friends I sat down with said, ‘You do know what's happening, don't you? You do know that we have armed guards outside our kids’ schools, our young people are now part of a security force. You do understand what is happening?’”

In the aftermath of Bondi Beach, “I asked myself if I had done enough? And I reflected that I could have done a lot more. I felt a sense of my own guilt. As everyone should be saying right now, no one did enough. The Jewish community was doing it all and was making it very clear what they thought would happen.