Australian PM REFUSES to launch extremism probe after Bondi terror attack

While Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been widely panned for claiming a probe would "provide a public platform for some of the worst statements and worst voices".

But a mass campaign is underway to start a Royal Commission - the most powerful kind of inquiry in Australia - to probe a surge in antisemitism.

Fifteen people were killed in the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at the famous Sydney beach on December 14.

The families of the dead and injured urged Mr Albanese on Monday to set one up, while business leaders have raised more than $200,000 (£100,000) in a bid to campaign for one.

An open letter describing a national probe as the best way to show that "Australia rejects hate and the forces that threaten its social cohesion" would be sent to the PM by Thursday, David Baxby, co-founder and partner of Coogee Capital, said.

And Australia's former competition watchdog chief Graeme Samuel has demanded one to root out those waging war on the West.

A national inquiry must address "hate speech, discrimination, terrorism holistically - across race, religion, and ethnicity", Mr Samuel said.

It should also examine movements of "intolerance, hatred and religious fervour" that were waging war against Western moral traditions - and focus on the "root cause of social division and hatred - in particular our educational institutions", he wrote in the Australian National Review.

Mr Albanese has repeatedly shut down calls - even from inside his own party - for a nationwide inquiry into the causes of antisemitism and other forms of extremism.

Senior ministers have vowed instead to focus on the largest firearms buyback in 30 years, changes to gun laws and new measures to stamp out hate crimes, alongside a major review of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

On Tuesday, the PM appeared to open the door for a U-turn, refusing to rule one out when asked during a press conference on flood relief in Queensland.

But he still insisted his Government would prioritise the intelligence review - and recall Parliament to pass stronger "hate speech" laws.

He said his Labor Party would do "everything that is required to make sure we build social cohesion back in this country".

The row comes as a Change.org petition demanding the Government launch a probe to "scrutinise every aspect of this atrocity and devise actionable solutions that prioritise the safety and cohesion of our society" reached more than 75,000 signatures on Tuesday.

The petition's creator, Jewish advocate Marnie Perlstein, said the poll only added to the pressure on Mr Albanese's Labor.

"My sense is that there is a very strong desire on the part of our community to uncover what led up to the Bondi massacre and the two years of growing antisemitism in Australia that have really changed the fabric of this country in a way that I can’t believe," she said.

The Federal Government has so far committed to backing a more localised Royal Commission in New South Wales in response to the attack.