The tragedy of Bondi

Hi

For this edition, I was going to do a summary of all the great principles we’ve covered in the articles this year.

Then Bondi happened.

I would first like to send my thoughts and prayers to the families of all the victims – and particularly to our lovely community of Jewish Australians who were the target of the attack.

Ever since I was a little boy, reading novels set in the Orthodox community of New York, holidaying at Noosa and befriending Jewish kids up from Melbourne, I’ve always felt a strong affinity with the Jewish people; a people who like my Irish Catholic ancestors faced persecution and spread across the world, including landing here in Australia where we found peace and freedom.

I have also met many wonderful Jewish people, particularly through work, who I have been proud to call friends.

Like many, many Aussies and Sydneysiders, my family also count ourselves a small part of the Bondi community.

Each Sunday morning, rain, hail or shine, summer or winter, we trek to Bondi, and walk over that bridge, to go for a swim or surf. Bondi is where our kids learnt to swim in the ocean and to surf, their ‘home break’.

I love Bondi, but I’m a Queenslander.

The water is often cold, and I pine for the warm, salty water back home at Sunshine Beach.

But my gosh, last Sunday morning, didn’t Bondi turn it on.

The water was warm, almost tropical; Noosa water, I call it.

There was a grand old Jewish guy swimming right next to me. He was beaming. We were having an unspoken conversation: Yes, we were agreeing, this is fucking paradise!

I heard him telling someone he was back from freezing New York, where he was based, staying at his Bondi pad. His partner, who lived in Florida, a real “sun bunny”, was flying in the next day.

And then the events later that evening – events so horrific this simple Aussie can barely begin to comprehend them.

All week, I’ve been wanting to speak to the old guy: What happened? What happened to our paradise? What on earth was the Sun Bunny thinking as she flew, not into paradise, but into horror?

On Wednesday night at dusk, my family stood with hundreds of Jewish Aussies in front of Bondi Pavilion. I could see how much they were hurting. But I could also see them looking around, wondering: Are we alone? Are the rest of you Aussies with us? Will you forget this?

I can only speak for my small family, but the answer is: No, you are not alone. We are with you. We will not forget. And I know that all decent Aussies are with you and won’t forget.

It is a hard truth, but Bondi – to have the spreading scourge of antisemitism infect our souls and to have our Jewish Australians slaughtered on the shores of our most iconic beach – shows that we have lost our way.

This morning, I ran into a Kiwi who has been here for years. He’d let his Australian citizenship papers sit there for ages. After Bondi, he filed them. “I want to vote,” he said.

He knew, as I think most of us suspect, that we’ve all been taking this whole Australia thing for granted of late. Bondi makes us realise how young, fragile and precious it is – because it’s great and because it’s where we all bloody live! And it could be lost.

To be fair to us, though, we are being buffeted by great, powerful global forces and ideologies that are challenging all countries.

But that’s no excuse. Australians will have to begin asking tough, deep questions, many questions that we haven’t yet begun to ask. As we do, we need to be particularly mindful of not losing our freedoms.

And we will all need to stand up and be leaders again, for it is a lack of leadership, not laws, that has failed us.

I’m worried, but optimistic. I’m optimistic because, despite what the awful ideologues tell us, at our core and at our best, we are a good people, a decent people, and we are a freedom-loving people.

And, as our history shows, we’re also a tough people. Because we’re going to have to be pretty tough for all this not to break us.

Bondi has landed right at the end of a long, hard year. Everyone needs a holiday. I really feel for all the people – police, doctors, nurses, journos, and particularly the grieving families – who might not be able to take one now because of Bondi.

It will be a sombre Christmas, but I hope we can rally and have as good a time as we can with our loved ones.

I appreciate everyone who has read my musings this year and all the great feedback.

Have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Ben