Bondi security failures remain open question

A security review of the events surrounding the Bondi terror attack has not identified any urgent or immediate action that could prevent future attacks.

But the interim report of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion offerred 14 recommendations for changes to security systems. The National Security Committee met this morning and immediately adopted all recommendations relevant to the Commonwealth.

The report also confirmed that only four police officers were present when the attack occurred at the Chanukah by the Sea event, although CSG had written to police requesting assistance with any policing measures that the Command may deem appropriate, and stating that the current Security Level Alert for the NSW Jewish community is "HIGH. A terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish Community is likely and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification".

The report released by Commissioner Virginia Bell found a review of security agency and police documentation could not identify any gap in how law enforcement, border control, immigration or security agencies could prevent or respond to an attack of the kind that occurred at Bondi on December 14, 2025.

Key security questions before the Royal Commission are whether intelligence agencies failed to identify or act upon the threat, or whether there was a failure in the allocation of police resources to the Chanukah by the Sea event.

The interim report said the Commission could not answer these questions on the basis of a review of the agencies' documents conducted so far and these questions will need to be addressed in hearings, which begin next week. Some of these hearings may need to be closed, it noted.