Synagogues and Jewish schools may need protest bans like abortion clinics to reduce ‘distress and anxiety’, Dreyfus suggests | Royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion

Former attorney general Mark Dreyfus called on governments to consider banning protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, citing a Supreme Court ruling that allows restrictions outside abortion clinics.

A federal Labor supporter told the royal commission into antisemitism that the laws should be considered in light of a 2019 high court decision that upheld safe access zone laws in Victoria and Tasmania that banned protests within 150 meters of abortion clinics.

“The Supreme Court has said that such legislation, intended to reduce the distress and anxiety of Australians who need to go to an abortion clinic, falls within the implied restrictions on freedom of political communication,” Drefus said in a statement on Monday. he said.

“It is time to consider whether we need a similar restriction on protest activity outside synagogues, schools and Jewish gathering places, not to ban political protest but rather to protect Australian Jews.”

Last year, the New South Wales government reintroduced laws restricting protests that threaten or deny a person access to a place of worship; Previously, a law restricting protests near places of worship was struck down by the state’s supreme court.

The royal commission’s fifth session in Melbourne this week will examine security arrangements for the Jewish community, including the role of the Jewish Community Security Group (CSGs) and its coordination with law enforcement.

Co-counsel Richard Lancaster SC said the evidence would show a “significant and ongoing threat to the security of the Jewish community in Australia” and lead to a “contraction of Jewish communal life”, including the financial burden of employing security guards.

Dreyfus, who is Jewish, told the commission he was shocked by the “violation of the sense of security” previously created by granting asylum to Jewish refugees, including his father, who came to Australia from Nazi Germany in 1939 when he was 11, after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

He said his previous role as a cabinet member in the first term of the Albanian government put him in a “unique position”, which led to “particularly difficult and painful” criticism from some Australian Jews.

“I’ve had a lot more freedom as an MP,” Dreyfus said since leaving the cabinet following the 2025 federal election, which saw him replaced by Michelle Rowland as attorney general.

Dreyfus used his evidence on Monday to urge the Commonwealth government, following NSW and Victoria, to consider creating a criminal offense for defamation, as well as introducing a “private right of action” under the government’s proposed digital duty of care to allow for the elimination of online abuse on social media.

“This cannot be left solely to the e-Security officer,” he said.

Dreyfus told the commission that antisemitism in Australia “did not appear out of nowhere”, pointing to historical examples and saying solidarity with Australian Jews after the October 7 attacks “followed a rise in antisemitism”. [that] “It shook me deeply.”

These included an incident in April 2024 where a man approached him outside the Victorian state library and said: “You are a genocidal Zionist. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“No one had ever abused me because I was Jewish. This was a new development in my involvement in Australian politics and I know I am not alone,” said Dreyfus, who has been MP for Isaacs in south-east Melbourne since 2007.

On Monday, the commission heard from members of state-based Jewish Community Security Groups, volunteer-led organizations that monitor threats to the Jewish community and provide security for schools, synagogues and events.

A senior member of CSG Victoria said consolidated data showed safeguarding requirements for CSGs across the country had nearly doubled since October 2023, but organizations were still understaffed.

They said Victoria CSG “couldn’t do what we do” without government grants, but that the funding was not enough to provide adequate security in Jewish settlements, with the majority of funding coming from community donations.

“Being Jewish today shouldn’t have such a financial burden, and I don’t see how that’s sustainable or why it should be sustainable.”

Another CSG witness, appearing under the pseudonym ACR, described a feeling of “always on guard” and said they “heavily discouraged my parents from attending Jewish community events.”

“I don’t want to put myself in a situation where if something comes up I have to decide between taking them out and dealing with the threat, and that’s incredibly difficult.”

The commission heard from a staff member involved in preparing annual reports analyzing anti-Semitic incidents reported to CSGs across the country. They detailed that the 2025 report, which has not yet been published, included 1,276 incidents, up 22% from the previous year and the most incidents ever reported.

They said the increase in incidents in schools and synagogues, including incidents targeting schoolchildren, was “not a trend that has been seen before.”