Secret cabinet records show warnings on Islamist radicalisation 20 years before Bondi terror attack

Recently released cabinet documents show that concerns about homegrown Islamist radicalisation were already shaping Australian national security policy two decades before the alleged ISIS-inspired Bondi massacre.

Records released by the National Archives of Australia reveal that the Howard government was grappling with the threat of radical Islam emerging within Western Muslim communities in the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings, when four locally radicalised suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured more than 770.

In a cabinet submission following the London attacks, then Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb warned that the bombings had been “perpetrated by mainly locally born and raised young Muslims” and exposed the risk of radicalisation among “elements of Muslim communities in culturally diverse Western societies”.

The submission identified a complex mix of factors contributing to Islamist radicalisation, including social exclusion, discrimination and economic disadvantage. It also pointed to what it described as “an identity of vicarious humiliation” that extremist preachers and more experienced radicals exploited by linking local grievances to conflicts overseas involving Muslim populations.

Cobb wrote that these narratives were deliberately used by radical clerics to frame global events such as war and violence in Muslim-majority countries as personal injustices suffered by young Muslims in the West.

At the time, Australian security assessments found troubling similarities with Europe. “Muslim isolation and alienation, continuing levels of racism and discrimination, the complexity of the Muslim community and its failure to so far create a coherent Australian Muslim identity” were cited as warning signs in the cabinet analysis.

Despite Australia’s relatively strong multicultural framework, the submission cautioned that there remained “a battle under way for the hearts and minds of impressionable young people”, a phrase that mirrors contemporary assessments of Islamist recruitment strategies used by groups such as ISIS.

The documents also show that then prime minister John Howard took the issue seriously. In August 2005, Howard and senior ministers met with Australian Muslim leaders to discuss what could be done to address extremism. The meeting, according to the records, “unanimously rejected terrorism in all its forms”.

Following those discussions, the government developed a national action plan through the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs aimed at preventing radicalisation before it escalated into violence. Cabinet Submission JH05/0489, approved on 12 December 2005, allocated $85.9 million over four years for initiatives including leadership development, education, employment support and community partnerships to counter extremism and promote social cohesion.

The plan included measures to connect young Muslim Australians with positive Muslim and non-Muslim role models, improve employment pathways, train community leaders and teachers to promote social cohesion, and help young people manage grievances without turning to violence.

Further records detail urgent counter-terrorism reforms following the London bombings. Cabinet Submission JH05/0313, considered by the National Security Committee, endorsed control orders, preventative detention, expanded police powers, citizenship changes and enhanced surveillance to tackle homegrown threats.

In response to the October 2005 Bali bombings, which killed 20 people, including four Australians, Cabinet Decision JH05/0365/NSC reviewed Australia’s coordinated efforts, including medical evacuations and strengthened cooperation with Indonesia on counter-terrorism. This built on earlier responses to the 2002 Bali attacks and highlighted the persistent threat from groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah.

Additional cabinet discussions, including JH05/0490/NSC with the United States Director of National Intelligence, addressed homegrown extremism and emphasised engaging moderate leaders in countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan to counter radicalisation affecting Australia.

The Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005, outlined in Cabinet Decision JH05/0421/NS, introduced new definitions of terrorism offences to allow for prosecution even if no specific act had occurred, reflecting fears of radical Islamist plots.

The documents also sit within the broader context of the global “war on terror” launched by US president George W. Bush, which reshaped intelligence and counterterrorism thinking across Western democracies.

While the 2005 records focus primarily on Islamist extremism, they are being re-examined amid renewed scrutiny of antisemitic violence following the Bondi terror attack, which authorities say was driven by extremist ideology and targeted Jewish Australians.

Security experts and Jewish community leaders have since warned that modern Islamist extremism often fuses radical Islam with explicit antisemitism, a pattern seen globally in ISIS propaganda and other jihadist movements.

The resurfacing of the Howard-era documents underscores that warnings about homegrown radical Islam and its potential to fuel antisemitic violence were well understood by Australian governments long before the current crisis.