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In Brief
- The interim report from the antisemitism royal commission is due by 30 April.
- The commission has told SBS News it could identify issues that need immediate action.
The eagerly awaited interim report from the Royal Commission on Antisemitism is poised to potentially suggest measures requiring “urgent or immediate action.” However, it is important to note that this report will not draw on data from private hearings.
Instead, the commission’s findings, set for submission to Governor-General Sam Mostyn on April 30, will rely on data gathered from official requests for information, public submissions, and meetings.
This marks the first report by the commission since its establishment earlier this year. It is anticipated to concentrate on the role of security agencies and any intelligence shortcomings that might have contributed to the tragic events of December 14, when 15 people, predominantly Jewish Australians, lost their lives during a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
The inaugural series of public hearings is scheduled to take place in Sydney from May 4 to May 15. These sessions will delve into defining antisemitism, understanding the personal impacts and experiences of antisemitism on Jewish Australians, and evaluating how prevalent antisemitism is within institutions and the broader society.
In a statement provided to SBS News ahead of the report’s release, the royal commission clarified that no private hearings have been conducted thus far. The initial report will be compiled using a diverse range of sources, including official document requests, public submissions, and various meetings.
The Commission said a “significant number” of submissions it had received detailed lived experiences of antisemitism across a number of sectors, including education, employment, media, health, the arts, sports, and online.
It said the report would “identify other issues requiring urgent or immediate action. The Commissioner will make recommendations relevant to these issues”.
Ronald Sackville, the former chair of the disability royal commission, said the interim report is likely to be confined to examining the actions of the intelligence agencies and police forces, based on the comments of the royal commissioner Virginia Bell.
He said a full examination and a full set of recommendations may have to wait until the final report.
“It may be that the interim report doesn’t provide a complete and full analysis of all the issues arising out of the law enforcement and intelligence issues that the commission is going to investigate, but we’ll just have to wait and see whether it does that.”
Scott Prasser, a public policy researcher and expert on royal commissions, said interim reports are usually done halfway through a royal commission.
“To me, they should have been talking to some people, preferably in public hearings, before we have any sort of interim report,” he told SBS News.
He said questions that could be asked to establish facts included: “how quickly did the police respond, what happened, who was what where and so on”.
“So I’m not quite sure whether this, it’s to me, it’s rushing the process.”
Prasser said facts could be established without affecting the separate criminal trial for alleged shooter Naveed Akram, who is facing 59 charges, including murder and terrorism offences.
“It could establish all sorts of things like: ‘Who were affected?’, ‘What were people doing?’ How much police surveillance was there?’
“Were the New South Wales Police alerted to it? How long did it take for the authorities to respond to all those sort of things, which have got nothing to do with who was shooting.”
Prasser said the public hearings would be an important mechanism for Jewish Australians to express their feelings and experiences of antisemitism.
“The hearings are often where the Royal Commission gets a clear idea of what happened and who did what.”
The Commission has also not ruled out further interim reports, saying others could be prepared if they are “considered necessary”.
Earlier this year, former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson resigned from his position as special adviser to the antisemitism royal commission, saying he felt he was “surplus” to the needs of the inquiry.
He said the interim report that will now be done by the royal commission will be “a very different document” to the one that he would have done in his review, before the royal commission was announced.
The Albanese government initially refused to call a royal commission into the Bondi massacre, instead tapping Richardson to head a review of the adequacy of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the attack.
Following weeks of political pressure, Albanese relented and announced a broader inquiry to be headed by Bell, a former High Court judge, to investigate antisemitism and any failures in the nation’s intelligence services.
Richardson’s review was folded into the new royal commission.
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