Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defends delay amid legal concerns
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she wanted “ministers to be effectively on the bench” during the royal commission, which will question government decisions that may have contributed to the conditions that led to the Bondi murders.
Former Home Office secretary Mike Pezzullo said investigations into antisemitism and social cohesion should be public, but “much of it may need to be kept out of the public spotlight” on issues related to national security.
He said previous royal commissions, such as Samuels’ investigation into the Australian Secret Intelligence Service in 1994, had set a precedent for protecting covert activity.
“It just needs to be explained in a very realistic way and the Prime Minister should give assurances about that.” [part of the inquiry] “To put out as much as possible,” he said.
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The Prime Minister, former Supreme Court judge Virginia Bell, defended the AC as her choice to lead the inquiry, while saying it was crucial that any criminal case was not jeopardized by the royal commission.
Surviving Bondi attacker Naveed Akram is charged with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder and committing an act of terrorism, and will be tried through the NSW court system while Bell conducts his investigation.
“What you don’t want, and I don’t think anyone would, is this disruption of the hearing,” the prime minister said Friday, adding that Bell was the best choice among more than a dozen candidates to lead the investigation because of his experience in criminal law and more than a decade of service on the nation’s highest court.
The “judiciary” legal rule is designed to prevent the publication of prejudicial information that could influence the jury’s views in such a way that the jury would be held in contempt of court.
“This is a very complex issue,” Albanese said. “There has never been a royal commission before when a legal case was ongoing. I suspect that may be one of the reasons why there hasn’t been a royal commission into what happened at the Lindt cafe. [siege in 2014].”
University of Sydney law professor David Rolph, author of a 2023 book on contempt of court, said the risk in the Akram case was manageable.
“Because the royal commission’s terms of reference are broad and the commissioner has powers over what to investigate at any given time, the royal commissioner will be able to minimize or prevent risks of contempt of the court order,” said Rolph.
Akram is expected to appear in court in April, just as former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson releases his report into intelligence failures.
Bell was given until December 14, 2026 to return his findings.
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