TRANSCRIPT – BONDI MASSACRE

SENATOR THE HON BRIDGET MCKENZIE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEADER OF THE NATIONALS IN THE SENATE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA

TRANSCRIPT

 

INTERVIEW: DOORSTOP INTERVIEW – WODONGA DECEMBER 15th 2025

   

TOPICS: Bondi Massacre, Islamic Terrorism

 

15th December 2025

 

E&OE…

   

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

Yeah, Bridget McKenzie, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Senator for the great state of Victoria.

 

Well, today, with millions of Australians, I stand with our Jewish community in the face of the horrific Islamic terrorist attack yesterday in Bondi Beach. This is the second deadliest attack on Jews outside of Israel since the Holocaust. So, let’s not minimize what is absolutely devastating to us here in Australia, but a horrific example of the rise of Antisemitism and evil here on our shores in Australia. I want to say thank you to our first responders and to the heroic bystanders who took their own life into their hands to take down evil on behalf of those they love and in some cases strangers. We stand with the families who today have lost loved ones.

 

16 people have died as a result of this Islamic terrorist attack. Over 46 are still in hospital injured, and we pray for their safety and return to their loved ones. We know that there are thousands who are impacted by this, who were on the beach at Bondi yesterday. Too many Australians are shocked today, but unfortunately not surprised by this attack on our shores. We’ve watched a weak response from the federal government since the horrific attacks of October 7, 2023. They’ve recognized the state of Palestine. Not one minister has visited the sites of the deadly Hamas attacks in Israel, like so many other world leaders have. They’ve stood silently while we’ve seen evil rise. No one has been prosecuted for being terrorist sympathizers in the protest and marches that have overtaken our capital cities over the last two years. They’ve seen the return, secretly under the cover of darkness, of ISIS brides. We’ve seen 3,000 Gazans given visas without appropriate checks. We’ve seen some sort of moral equivalency between Islamophobia and the rise of the evil of anti-Semitism on our shores. We have also seen students attending primary schools under armed guards in our country, synagogues bombed, Jewish businesses boycotted, and families spat on in the streets of our capital cities. That’s what’s been happening here. In our suburbs and our communities over the last two years.

 

Most appallingly has been the failure of this government to implement their own recommendations into dealing with Antisemitism handed to them by their Antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal. Not one recommendation has been adopted. That is why Australians are shocked, but they’re not surprised that this is where we’re at. So, we stand with our Jewish community, and like so many others, I will be heading to Melbourne later today to the Caufield Shule, where the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, will be on display. We will not be bowed by this evil. We will stand with our Jewish community against Islamic terrorism. Any questions?

 

ABC JOURNALIST

 

Have you talked to anyone here locally in Wodonga about how the feeling has been in this region where you where you base yourself?

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

Yeah, I’ve spoken to local Jewish community leaders and others. That’s where I’ve been able to get the menorah that will be in my office as a sign of solidarity with our Jewish community. We know here in Australia, we have one of the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel in the world and to see that hate visited, I absolutely believe as a result of our federal government’s weak response to the October the 7th, 2023 attack in Israel. A foreign minister didn’t visit the Kibbutz Beeri or the Nova Music Festival site. We saw Australians en masse protesting in capital cities week in, week out, with Hezbollah and Hamas flags. We had an Iranian attack. This has been happening for a while, and now we have 16 people dead. The last time our beautiful country was flashed across the world in this way was the protests outside the Opera House celebrating what had happened in Israel when we saw the largest death of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. So, when we all said at the end of World War II, never again, that meant never again. When it rises its head, you have to be strong, stand up against it. Unfortunately, we’ve had a federal government, as I’ve outlined in the variety of their behaviors, failing to do that. And this is what’s been visited here as a result.

 

ABC JOURNALIST

 

So, what needs to be done? What is the next step that needs to be done? You’ve called upon them to implement the recommendations. How soon does this need to be?

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

Well, I hope justice for these perpetrators, for these is I hope justice will be visited swiftly and severely on these Islamic terrorists. Let’s call it for what it is. It’s not the gun, it’s Islamic terrorism and it’s here.

 

ABC JOURNALIST

 

After the Port Arthur massacre, the Coalition Government at the time took stringent steps to toughen gun laws. Should we be looking towards doing the same after this event?

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

I find it incredible that these Islamic terrorists could be on ASIO watch lists and still avail themselves of a gun license. I am a law-abiding firearm owner. I would hate to see restriction for law-abiding firearm owners in the wake of an Islamic terrorist act. This wasn’t a mass shooting like Port Arthur. This was targeted. It was targeted at our Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah on the shores of Bondi Beach.

 

It’s a lot easier to say this is about guns than to say it’s about Islamic terrorism being amongst us.

 

ABC JOURNALIST

 

But would you…I mean reportedly we’ve seen things something like a figure of 64,000 guns only here in Victoria registered in the last year.

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

And how many of those guns are held by Islamic terrorists? So again, it’s hard to admit and to say that Islamic terrorism is here. It’s much easier to say we’ve got to have gun reform.

 

ABC JOURNALIST

 

Are you clearly saying Islamic terrorism is here on our shores? Just to clarify.

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

I think it is absolutely crystal clear that Islamic terrorism is here amongst us. We witnessed to devastating impact on the shores of Bondi Beach. We have 16 people dead. We have 46 still injured in hospital, praying for their safe return to their families. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of people who witnessed that attack. To somehow hide under the Doona and say Islamic terrorism is somewhere else, is in the Middle East, is in Europe, is failing to wake up. It’s here and we need to do something about it.

 

7NEWS JOURNALIST

 

What do you think we need to do about it?

 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE

 

Well, the Prime Minister needs to take action. So that’s a matter for government. He’s got all the agencies, our intelligence agencies, our security agency, the federal police, to get that advice on what should be done. Again, I state the fact that this man was on a watch list is the problem. There’s a failure of process. So, we stand with the federal government to do everything possible to stamp this out. But this rise of Islamic terrorism didn’t happen overnight. It’s been here and it has grown and festered as a result of this government’s failure to act on antisemitic behavior in our suburbs, on our streets, protesting week in, week out since October the 7th, 2023.

 

Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming out. Cheers.

 

ENDS