Human Rights Commissioner backs Royal Commission into antisemitism

Australia’s human rights commissioner has backed growing calls for a federal royal commission into the Bondi terror attack and antisemitism, becoming the first government-appointed official to publicly support the demands of the Jewish community and more than 200 former judges and lawyers.

In a statement posted on LinkedIn on New Year’s Eve, Lorraine Finlay said current investigations were inadequate to address the underlying causes of the violence.

“The Richardson Review will examine our national security framework. But understanding the deeper causes of the violence is critical. The Bondi terror attack was driven by antisemitism,” he wrote.

“Confronting this head-on must be a national priority. A federal Royal Commission is vital to fully understand what happened and ensure it never happens again.”

Finlay’s intervention increases pressure on the federal government, which has so far resisted calls for a national royal commission, instead pointing to a number of existing investigations and criminal cases.

The Islamic State-inspired Bondi attack on Hanukkah celebrations left 15 dead and more than 40 hospitalized; Jewish community leaders have renewed debate about antisemitism and national security, arguing that only a federal royal commission can fully examine the ideological factors, institutional failures and broader social conditions that enable the violence.

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Appointed by the Morrison government for a five-year term in November 2021, Finlay was previously a law lecturer at Murdoch University, as well as a senior human trafficking expert at Australia’s Mission to ASEAN and a state prosecutor at the WA Director of Public Prosecutions.

Her appointment sparked some criticism at the time because she was previously a Liberal Party candidate for the Western Australian parliament and president of the state’s Liberal Women’s Council.