Photo: Richard Dobson/News Corp Australia
Commissioner Virginia Bell has defended her push to delay the release of her final report of the anti-Semitism inquiry, saying she did not want to cause a “distraction” for the Jewish community on a “solemn” day of remembrance.
On Wednesday [August 26], the final day of the Antisemitism and Social Cohesion Royal Commission’s public hearings, Bell said the findings would be released on December 18. Commissioner Bell said she is required to present her final report to the Governor General and the governors of all states no later than December 14, but will request a “short extension.”
“December 14 is the anniversary of the massacre. It will be a solemn occasion marked by memorials,” she said. “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, December 18.”
Bell added that she would seek to have confidential aspects of her interim and final reports released to the public pending the criminal trial of alleged Bondi mass murderer Naveed Akram.
“The Commission has had to take care to conduct its inquiry in a way that does not occasion prejudice to pending criminal proceedings,” Bell said. “And this has necessitated examination of the third term of reference which relates to the attack being conducted in closed hearings. I propose that substantial parts of the confidential volumes of the interim and final reports should be made public,” she said.
The commissioner conceded members of the Jewish community might find it “frustrating” the inquiry was not delving further into what led to the attack.
“I’m conscious that many members of the community, and particularly members of the Jewish community, must find it frustrating that a Royal Commission established in the aftermath of the Bondi-Hanukkah attack has not been seen publicly to be investigating what led to the attack and whether it might have been prevented,” she said.
Bell said she was “satisfied” she was prepared to give an airtight review on whether Australian intelligence and law enforcement agencies had responded with “maximum effectiveness” to the Bondi attack.
“I am satisfied that I am currently in a position to give a full and fair account of the term of reference which asks whether, in relation to the Bondi-Hanukkah attack, our intelligence and our law enforcement agencies operated or performed to maximum effectiveness,” she said.
Commissioner Bell said the testimony of ordinary Jewish Australians was the predominant focus of the inquiry and that thousands of personal submissions had been heard by the commission.
“The Bondi-Hanukkah attack came after more than two years of a marked increase in anti-Semitism throughout Australia. Leaders of the major Jewish representative bodies have given evidence of the reports they received from their members of the increase in anti-Semitic incidents. But predominantly the commission’s focus has been on hearing from ordinary Jewish Australians from all walks of life. There are estimated to be fewer than 120,000 members. This commission has heard directly from more than 14,000 of them.,” Bell said.
In May ASIO director-general Mike Burgess defended his agency’s change in priorities from counter-terrorism to espionage in the years leading up to the 2025 terror attack.
“Every rock we lifted up we found espionage or foreign interference that need to be inquired and investigated. So resources were moved over there,” he said. “Of course, again, I reiterate that at no time do I believe we had any serious inquiries that was left un-inquired or investigated,” Australia’s top spy said. Burgess also said ASIO staff were “reallocated” from 2022 after the terror threat level was decreased to “possible.”
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