Broadcast 22 January 2026, 8:41am - 8:56am
Australia's National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack
Transcript
HAMISH MACDONALD, HOST: We’re marking this National Day of Mourning to recognise those lost and impacted, actually more broadly, during the Bondi terrorist attack back in December. National institutions are being illuminated as symbols of light, flags are being flown at half mast, a memorial service will be held at Bondi this evening. We're also all being invited to engage in acts of kindness, encouraged to spend time with family, light a candle in a front window, put it on the doorstep, for example. The Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, is here to talk to you this morning on this National Day of Mourning. Good morning to you, Governor-General.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Good morning, Hamish.
HOST: How are you marking this day? I assume you must be participating in the formal ceremonies, but in a sense, this is also personal for each of us.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: That's right. This is a deeply personal day and I think the day is something that every Australian can participate in any way they feel they can. It doesn't have to be showing up in a particular formal ceremony. I think you've been hearing all morning, and I certainly over the last six weeks, almost six weeks, I've been hearing about how people are already dealing with this and how they're handling the emotional stories that we're hearing. So, I think today's a very important day for everyone to find the moments of reflection and how they pay attention to what's been asked of us, which is these acts of mitzvah and kindness.
But for me, today, I'm in Canberra, I'm in my study, looking out at the flags at half mast over Lake Burley Griffin. I've spent some time just this morning, reflecting on the enormity of what the country has been dealing with in the past month or so and also on every one of the 15 lives that were cruelly taken. I've learned so much about all of those wonderful Australians and those that we have spoken about at funerals and commemorations. And, of course, also thinking about every one of the extraordinary acts of heroism, bravery, selflessness in every form that Australians have shown up from the immediate crisis, to this day.
Today I'll be travelling to Sydney. I'm having the enormous privilege of spending some time at home with Yaakov Tetleroyd, who just this week, I think said the most extraordinary things and talked about forgiveness of what had happened to him. And I visited him in hospital the day after the terror attack, and he was already in that frame of mind of forgiveness and wanting to heal others. These extraordinary, extraordinary human stories. And then this afternoon and this evening, I'll spend at the Opera House with the formal occasions.
And I'm very Happy to say that on Monday night at Admiralty House in Sydney, I was able to host about 35 faith leaders from across NSW, from the Faith Leaders Council and the Better Balanced Futures Group, who have all come together, all faiths, to talk about unity. Many rabbis, many muftis, many leaders of many churches. And we broke bread and, in anticipation of today, and thought about what was the one thing we could all do, and it was unity and kindness.
HOST: I'm really delighted to hear about that coming together. Can you share with us any of the, I suppose even the tone of the conversation, because we can all feel the fractiousness in the community that has existed obviously prior to the 14th of December, but so acutely highlighted on that day.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Yeah, look, I found Monday night deeply moving and full of hope and this light we've been talking about, that emanates from darkness. There was certainly a sombre tone to the evening. This wasn't celebratory in the sense of thinking this was over. It was a part of healing and the light that was coming through that evening, or even as sombre as it was as we sat around a long table eating foods that respected the various religions and faiths that were around the table. There were remarks made by a number, including Rabbi Ben Elton, who I know was on the radio this morning talking about light from within the government and our democratic systems. But we heard from a number of different faith leaders, from the Uniting Church, from the Catholic Church, from the Hindu Council, from the Buddhist Council. It was really quite extraordinary.
And what came out of it is that two things were agreed upon and everyone left with a plan to continue to meet, not necessarily at Admiralty House, but we provided the location that the gathering was chaired and convened by the group itself. They all agreed that the mitzvah program is the one thing that all Australians can commit to. And they were working on the 15 mitzvahs for the 15 souls and the 15 lives. And I think they will be published today with an encouragement that they're not the only things people can do, but they are certainly very good guides.
And the second thing was education. They all talked about education at every level, from school children all the way through to all of us, and throughout our entire system, educating ourselves not just on the Holocaust and history, but on what does unite us as a country. There was a very strong feeling of education and unity and a real sense of hope and a determination to take the light out of this terribly dark time.
HOST: It's a quarter to 9 on 702 mornings. You're listening to the Governor-General, Sam Mostyn. I talked about mitzvahs earlier this morning, Sam, and Joseph has texted me to say, “Hamish. The plural of a mitzvah is a mitzvot. So, I've learned something this morning.”
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: So, have I.
HOST: Kindness is something that you have spoken about a lot. You've talked about it to us here on 702 and clearly we're all looking for those acts of kindness today. But it strikes me that kindness has perhaps been in short supply at moments recently. And I don't want us to, you know, I know as leaders, you're all responsible to identify and highlight the positives and the pathways to come together. But I feel it would be a little disingenuous of me not to acknowledge the fact that clearly it's been absent for a lot of people recently. How are you thinking about that now?
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Look, I think you're right to call that out. And in fact, in July 2024, when I first talked about care, kindness and respect being at the centre of everything I would do in this role for the five years I'm privileged to serve, I did find some people pushed back and thought that was a soft ambition and something that we didn't need to talk about. And yet when I went out to communities all over the country, the word of those three that people asked me to keep really speaking about was kindness. Australians coming out of COVID, coming out of cost-of-living issues, out of many, many natural disasters that had already occurred (floods and fires - and we've seen that again over this summer, even since the Bondi disaster), they kept saying, please keep talking about kindness and celebrate and uplift us on kindness. And I've been trying to do that.
And of course, I have the immense privilege in my office of having no politics, no policies, and I don't dispense any money or grants. So, I am in a unique position where I can be kind and do that. And I look around and I always have a greater hope for those who are in contested environments, and I always do hope for greater kindness towards one another.
I noticed this morning on some of the ABC radio networks that some politicians don't want to talk about what's happening in Canberra on this day of mourning and taking that very seriously. I thought that was interesting, not to talk about division on a day when we are being all encouraged as a nation to mourn and grieve and celebrate light and do good things.
But if I think back to when people thought care was soft, care is actually very hard to do. Kindness is hard to do consistently unless you commit to it. And so I think what we're being asked to do, and we're asking everybody in whatever part of the Australian society - find that kind part of yourself, dig deep, try to not go into those points of anger and division, that's what led us to this point. This is what led to people taking guns. That's hate, division.
Kindness is the light that really pushes back against that. And I think Australians, at their heart and their core know that. I see that all around the country. And I've seen it again in every single response to Bondi and the families who were so deeply affected by that and the Jewish community. And then I've seen it again, most recently in floods, the devastating fires in Victoria, even responses to the shark attacks up along the coast of Sydney, that people are rushing towards danger and dealing with things with kindness. But I think it's a message for all of us.
And Sir Zelman Cowen, a former holder of this office, a Jewish man who held this office with such great esteem, talked about uniting the country by ways reflecting the national mood of light and shade, interpreting the country back to itself. And Sir William Deane, who said this to me and is still alive in Canberra - just turned 95 - said that we should all treat everything with compassion and we should always walk together and talk together and work together and always try to remove anger and division from the things we need to do.
And in fact, the other night, Rabbi Elton at our dinner talked about the need for compromise as an act of kindness. And I think he was really speaking to compromise within the policies and political system and those that seek to rush to anger, and push back.
And I've certainly seen that across my social media - that I've had people who have jumped to anger and put some really terrible things as comments when we've been celebrating the Jewish community or talking about mitzvah. And, you know, people rushing to that instinct do not, from my mind, reflect Australian values, particularly as we go into celebrating Australia Day in just a few days time.
HOST: Yeah, look, I mean, I have to say, Sam Mostyn, as a journalist, I'm pretty troubled and frankly, a bit shocked how willing people are to attack on these matters. Australian citizens were killed. I'm seeing it on the text line now, people willing to show very little sympathy or kindness towards those other humans, seemingly, I think, justifying what happened on the basis of civilian deaths in Gaza. I suppose it's, you know, I'm not expecting you to comment on overseas conflict, but I suppose if we have empathy, if we have sympathy, if we feel humanity, we can extend that to all, can't we?
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Of course. Absolutely. And I think you're right to be troubled. I think we should all be reflecting on that and today might be a very good day to do that, to reflect on our own behaviour and our own instincts, to jump to division rather than to an act of care or kindness.
I think the response that the Jewish community have had, reaching out to us after such a heinous terrorist act, where they've lost so much, that within two weeks of that occurring, and within a month of that occurring, the gentleness and the courage and the kindness coming from that community, despite the extraordinary grief and mourning that they must be experiencing, asking us to be our best selves and forgiving those that caused such devastation. It should be a mark for us about how we treat this moment.
But I think you're right to be troubled. If I have a moment while I reflect, I think that when people do get angry and just jump to that instinct of hate, I wonder what it is it will take for people just to sit back and reflect on what actually holds us together as a nation.
And I think our social cohesion is at the heart of who we are. This extraordinary project that we've all been engaged in for the last 125 years since Federation, buttressed by 60,000 years of extraordinary indigenous culture and knowledge shared with us, our institutions, our strong democracy. And then a form of multiculturalism and modernity in welcoming people from every part of the world who have committed themselves so deeply to this country, and I think sometimes show the best of Australian values. Particularly when they've done the citizenship test and understand what those values are.
In fact, the other night at the Faith Leaders Dinner, it was the leader of the community of Hindus who stood up and spoke about the fact that the Hindu values in Australia, Australian values, are exactly the same as the Australian values on the Home Affairs website that people subscribe to for Australian citizenship. I think those conversations tell me that hate is directed in all of the wrong places.
If I might comment on one thing this morning, Hamish, I think it's wonderful that you are spending your time encouraging, educating and sharing stories. And I was a bit disappointed when I picked up the newspapers this morning, like I do that every day, just to see what the tone is. And very few masterheads have actually given the front page to celebrating this day and encouraging people to understand that actually we can stop and take a moment, draw breath, reflect and encourage people who rely on those forms of media to take their lead.
So, I think every part of our society, wherever we are, can be involved in actively doing what we've been asked to do. Kindness, care, respect, reflection, finding that light that comes from this terrible darkness. And remember that Australia is built on heroism and selflessness and service. I'll be speaking about that, actually on the ABC, with my address to the nation on the eve of Australia Day about the fact that that is actually our great core strength and we need every mechanism, every part of our society today, I think, in particular. And then continuing to say, to actually put that into the words that Australians can appreciate and reflect on.
Last night I went and gave plasma because I was conscious that I hadn't done that since a few days after the terrible event. The simplicity of things that people can do today and just to be nice to one another and reach out and actually push back on some of that anger, to say, why the anger? I think sometimes you've got to take this on in a calm, moderated way, and ask the question as to can we have these discussions, contested or otherwise, with respect to the core?
HOST: I mean, the headline out of that is that someone's going to get the Governor-General's blood. Goodness me.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: I hope so. I’m in there regularly. I was in there with my aide de camp, who's an army officer, and he sat there in his army uniform. And I'm hoping that the pictures we've put up will encourage all the servicemen and women who, whenever we post, then have a big competition between the services as to who can donate the most. That's the kind of response that talks about the generosity and spirit of togetherness that Australians really do have.
And I'm really grateful that you've taken the time to actually spend your morning reflecting on this and sharing with the Sydneysiders, particularly today, given what happened at Bondi, that this is a national project, it's for every one of us, and we don't have to be at formal events to show that kindness. And those mitzvahs, or the mitzvot, are great examples of simple things every Australian can do.
HOST: Sam Mostyn, we really appreciate you helping us to do that and contributing so positively to the conversation. So, your Excellency, Governor-General, thank you very much.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Thanks so much, Hamish.