The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has held its final day of hearings. Over 62 days and nine hearing blocks, the inquiry has heard from 340 witnesses and received more than 20,000 submissions. The commission will now turn to drafting its final report and recommendations, due to be handed down in December.
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TRANSCRIPT
After 62 days, nine hearing blocks and more than 340 witness testimonies, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has held its final day of public hearings.
The inquiry was called in response to the Bondi terror attack on December 14 2025, in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach.
While the final report and recommendations are due to be handed down before December 14 this year, in her final address, Commissioner Virginia Bell has requested the delivery date be extended by four days to ensure focus isn't drawn away from the anniversary of the attack.
"I'm aware of concern within the Jewish community that delivery of the report on the anniversary would be a distraction. I fully understand that concern, and to avoid that distraction, I have asked for a short extension of the term with a view to the submission of my final report on Friday the 18th of December."
The inquiry set out to examine the extent and causes of antisemitism in Australia, how authorities can better prevent and respond to it, the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terror attack, and countering extremism and strengthening social cohesion.
While there have been calls for hearings to be extended, Ms Bell says beyond the short extension to the report's due date, she won't be seeking any further changes to the inquiry's timeline.
She says she believes after the months of hearings and more than 20,000 submissions, the Commission is well placed to document the nature and extent of antisemitism in the country.
"Predominantly, the commission's focus has been on hearing from ordinary Jewish Australians from all walks of life. Added to this substantial body of evidence are the thousands of personal submissions made by Jewish Australians telling of their experience of antisemitism."
Across the nine hearing blocks, a total of 346 witnesses gave evidence publicly and in closed hearings.
Witnesses have included Jewish Australians recounting their personal experiences of antisemitism, families reliving the horror of the Bondi terror attack, as well as police and intelligence chiefs, educators and academics, media executives, faith and community leaders and experts on extremism and social cohesion.
The commission has heard directly from 14 thousand members of the Jewish community, and Commissioner Bell also visited Brisbane and Adelaide and Perth to meet with local Jewish and multicultural communities.
Among the many Jewish Australians providing accounts of their lived experience of antisemitism at the inquiry, Jewish mother of three, Dina spoke about the enduring impacts the Bondi Terror Attack has had on her and her family.
"We arrived in Bondi and my 8-year-old just started crying, which was strange. And I said to her, "What's wrong?" And she said, "Now when I come to Bondi, I think about dying. It's so painful, even if you weren't there, because the reality is they came to kill us. We just weren't there. And it's living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia."
Others, recounting harrowing experiences of antisemitism, like Paramedic Joshua Gomperts, who described comments he received as a volunteer at a music festival.
"One of the firefighters looks at me, and he goes, "you're a Jew." He pulls out a large hunting knife, and looks at me, and goes "I would skin you, the way my family skinned yours in the camps."
Alongside the many deeply personal accounts across hearings, Police and intelligence agencies were probed about the circumstances around the December 14 attack, among other issues.
The Nation's Directory-General Security at ASIO, Mike Burgess, answered questions over whether the organisation was adequately funded at the time of the attack.
"Our resourcing was sufficient for the problems we face, of course we are stretched, and I do have means by which we can ask for additional resources if we need to."
Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns was also among those to give evidence at the inquiry, reflecting on an incident two years ago, when his electorate office in St Kilda was vandalised with the words 'Zionism is fascism'.
"I don't wanna see death and destruction on anyone. And to attribute that sort of intent or maliciousness to a Jewish person or to attribute some sort of dual loyalty is to create a space in which these sorts of things, like what happened to my office, is justified. It's a complete dehumanisation."
Jewish Human Rights Lawyer Sarah Schwartz also fronted the inquiry.
She told the commission her activism for Palestinian people, and criticism over Israel's actions in Gaza have led to abuse online from Neo-nazis as well as fellow Jews.
"These are messages that refer to me as self-hating, as a traitor. There have been memes circulated about me which contain images of me as a rat. There's often Nazi references, um, images of me with a yellow star of the type that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany."
The Commission has also scrutinised social media platforms over the spread and amplification of hatred and misinformation, and public broadcasters SBS and ABC also answered questions over editorial standards and their reporting on the conflict in Gaza.
Universities were also examined, with Jewish students and academics recounting experiences of hostility and fear, and schools facing questions over how antisemitism is taught, recognised and confronted.
John Hamey, a Former principal of Australia's largest Jewish school Mariah College, told the inquiry students are so worn down by both the frequency of antisemitic abuse, and lack of consequences for perpetrators, that they've given up reporting it.
"Often, boys would have their Kippah flicked off their head as they walked through the school gates of other schools. There were often taunts that invoked the gas chamber, and statements along the line of: Hitler should have finished the job. And other neo-Nazi references. And, on one occasion, there were members of the public who stormed one of our school buses as it was coming to school, and were chanting anti-Semitic slurs."
The key drivers of antisemitism in Australia have also been examined in depth, including religious, far right and other ideologically-motivated extremism and radicalisation.
And in the final block of hearings, witnesses have focused on what's being done, and what more can be done, to foster social cohesion in communities.
Giving evidence at the inquiry in mid-August, solicitor and policy adviser to the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network Rita Jabri Markwell brought the commission's attention to the racism and dehumanisation many Muslim Australians also continue to experience.
"Many Muslims have experienced dehumanisation but never been able to properly understand it as a process and understanding it is very important to being able to process it and to heal and to not internalise it and internalise all the barriers that come with, accepting inferiority or any of the other aspects of dehumanisation."
She said for all groups, genuine social cohesion requires change at an institutional level.
"To me, it means genuine belonging, which comes about through having trust in institutions. And, at the moment, I think there is a, a growing deficit of trust."
Witnesses have also spoken about the important role of education, interfaith initiatives, arts and culture all play in building social cohesion and combating racism of all kinds.
Jewish Australian Kevin Nafte recounted his personal experience of the unifying power of sport, telling the commission about his experience playing for a joint Israeli-Palestinian AFL squad.
"There was a lot of animosity probably at the beginning between players who didn't really trust each other. But when you're on the field and someone comes and gives you a bump or shepherds you, protects you from getting tackled by another player, you automatically start to develop that trust. Sport is like a universal language in some ways."
Prominent advocate for Indigenous Australians Laureate Professor Dr Marcia Langton has told the Commission Australia won't achieve meaningful social cohesion without adequately acknowledging the experiences of First Nations people.
"Leaving us out of the picture and focusing solely on other forms of racism and xenophobia is not gonna fix it. You might get, convince a few people not to be anti-Semitic, but they will still hate us and the problem of racism and eugenics will continue."
On the final day of hearings, Sikh community leader Amar Singh, whose organisation Turbans for Australia served food community members and first responders affected by the shooting, was among those to give evidence.
David Solsky, who helped organised the Bondi paddle out, in which hundreds of people paddled into the water to remember the victims of the December 14 attack, also spoke about how important it was to come together to heal
And Co-Founder of inter-faith group Coming Together Rabbi George Mordecai has told the Commission Australia now has an important opportunity.
"There's a lot of power if we, in standing together in this way. For example, I know, I have learned from this experience in coming together that my Muslim, my Arab Palestinian friends also suffer tremendous bigotry as, as we have also suffered antisemitism. And so I think that if we have the ability, the courage to stand for each other, to stand together in the fight against racism and hatred, then this is really sort of what Australian democracy is all about and how we can strengthen it."
