Anthony Albanese has bowed to public pressure and finally announced a royal commission into the Bondi attack.

Except, in typical Albanese fashion, he’s late and he’s half baked.

It’s not, in fact, really a royal commission into the Bondi attack, but into anti-semitism. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go very far.

And now Albanese is being called out in public for failing to include immigration in his terms of reference.

Business leader Steven Lowy, the former co-chief executive of the Westfield Corporation, has called for immigration policy to be on the table in the inquiry into the terror attack.

Lowy told The Australian:

“I’m not going to prejudge this, because I don’t want to prejudge anything in the royal commission,” he said. “But it feels like that there is a question over our immigration policy and how that has contributed to where we are today, and also the tools that the government has available to itself to deal with that, with regards to things like visas, and the granting of visas, the removal of visas.”

This is the issue Albanese has been avoiding since day one. He refuses to even mention immigration, let alone consider whether or not immigration policies might have contributed to the attack.

Albanese speaks of unity and social cohesion, but he refuses to acknowledge the obvious: when you bring large numbers of people into the country with different, sometimes contrary values, you cannot have unity or social cohesion.

People do not magically embrace Australian values of egalitarianism, a fair go, democracy, and equality just because they are granted a visa.

You have to insist people uphold Australian values if you want them to endure.

Lowy makes a similar point:

“We’ve become tolerant for people in this country that are taking advantage of the democracy and the freedoms we all have.”

The empty appeals for unity are exactly the weakness that is being exploited, being taken advantage of, by people who do not share our values.

These are difficult questions. Australians are generally welcoming and we have had many great successful immigration stories.

But they are only possible if they come from a position of strength, where the interests of Australians are put first, and new arrivals integrate fully into our national project.

Australians are naturally not going to be so welcoming when they feel mass migration means people are taking advantage of our freedoms.

Albanese should listen to Lowy and listen to the Australian people. Immigration needs to be overhauled, and running from these tough questions will not work out well.