On the Coalition’s complaints it should have been done earlier, Burke says:

I think they underestimate the extent to which a new line was crossed the moment you deal with the fact that you have an attack on Australian soil. You know, it is a big thing for any government to shut off dialogue in the way that you do when you withdraw your staff from your own embassy and expel an ambassador.

There is always advantage in dialogue that needs to be weighed up. A line had clearly, so clearly been
crossed when we were dealing with an attack on our own soil, and I think anyone who pretends that we’re in the same situation with what we now know as we were, as the Australian people were a week ago, is missing the fundamental difference that you face when you have an attack on your own soil. And nobody should view this as an attack on a venue or an attack on the Jewish community. This is an attack on Australia, and it needs to be treated that way.