What we've learned from the Royal Commission

24.693 - 25.834 Sam Kozlowski

I'm Sam Kozlowski.

25.854 - 47.554 Zara Seidler

Today marks the end of the first block of public hearings for the Royal Commission into antisemitism and social cohesion. Over the past fortnight, we've heard the lived experiences of Jewish Australians and their varied experiences with antisemitism. In today's podcast, we're going to explain where we're at with this Royal Commission, what we've learned from the interim report and what comes next.

47.534 - 50.6 Zara Seidler

But first, here's a quick message from Adela in our team.

53.865 - 71.297 Adela

My name is Adela and I'm one of DailyOz's newest team members, the first news editor. One of my goals for TDA is to make sure we're doing more original reporting that you won't get elsewhere. But to make the investment in journalism, we need our audience to invest in us, not with money, but with engagement.

71.277 - 85.253 Adela

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164.55 - 180.565 Zara Seidler

Yeah, it's a bit confusing, but basically one of the reasons Anthony Albanese gave for not having a royal commission was that he had already tasked someone called Dennis Richardson. Yeah. with an investigation into what happened from the angle of our intelligence agencies.

181.066 - 199.352 Zara Seidler

So Dennis Richardson was really tasked with understanding who knew what, when, and basically if there was a failure of the intelligence agencies there. When the Royal Commission was announced, his investigation was basically folded into the Royal Commission and he was brought on as a special advisor to the Royal Commission.

199.372 - 205.268 Sam Kozlowski

So there were kind of like, you know, five different areas, let's say, of this Royal Commission, one of which was this existing review.

205.248 - 228.294 Zara Seidler

Yeah, exactly, one of which so, I mean, we've spoken briefly about the fact that we've heard this week about lived experiences. Another one is the intelligence agencies and that was really where his kind of lane was. He did resign from the commission though a few months ago and he basically said he felt surplus to the requirements, that he wasn't needed during that commission.

229.155 - 232.318 Zara Seidler

But that work is still going forward without him at the helm.

264.884 - 292.153 Zara Seidler

Let me take them one at a time. In terms of what is the reach of a royal commission, a royal commission is basically an investigation with the most powers that federal government can give any independent body. So it can compel witnesses. We obviously can hear testimony and that it is well financed. So it is resourced to be able to really undertake huge bodies of work on really big topics.

292.734 - 314.484 Zara Seidler

We have had royal commissions into things like veteran suicide, into the robo-debt scheme. Those take years, like really years and years and years. to trawl through so much evidence, so much testimony, and then they hand down a final report. They usually hand down an interim report as well. So interim report halfway, final report at the end.

315.065 - 334.247 Zara Seidler

And in a final report from a Royal Commission, you will usually see a bunch of recommendations. And it's then on the government of the day, whoever that might be, and we've had governments of every persuasion have to respond to Royal Commissions. It's up to them to either adopt or reject the findings of the Royal Commission. They are not obliged to adopt everything.

334.287 - 336.75 Zara Seidler

It's merely seen as a recommendation.

337.051 - 357.801 Sam Kozlowski

Some really varied topics there in terms of what Royal Commissions have historically covered, but it seems that the common thread through all of them is some just incredibly big questions and ones that do take a lot of time and energy to answer. I want to ask you then specifically about what we heard over the last couple of weeks. Before we do that, let's hear a quick message from our sponsor.

503.527 - 525.018 Zara Seidler

Some of them, I'll just read them out, were heightening security at high-risk Jewish festivals, prioritising gun control through setting up a consistent firearms agreement and employing a full-time national counter-terrorism coordinator. So kind of all sorts of different responses. Obviously, that's not all of them, but those were kind of a few of the ones that I picked out.

525.199 - 540.282 Zara Seidler

Importantly, I will add that the commission found that authorities believed there were no gaps in the law that if filled could have prevented the Bondi terror attack. So I'm going to read out a quote from Commissioner Bell, who's obviously running the Royal Commission.

540.783 - 561.769 Zara Seidler

She wrote in the interim report, it is not suggested that had any recommended change been in place on December 14, 2025, the Bondi attack might have been averted. And I felt like that was a really important point to highlight, that they're not saying that these recommendations would have stopped that attack from happening. I guess it's how do we stop it from happening again in the future?

561.749 - 572.679 Sam Kozlowski

So that was all then the backdrop to the start of the hearings themselves that have been live streamed. Talk us through what we've learned over the past 13 days of hearings.

573.159 - 589.714 Zara Seidler

So the hearings, as you said, have been live streamed. Some of them have been live streamed. Some people have had their identities protected. So they've either had, do you call it a pseudonym? A pseudonym, like an acronym given to them. So they'll be referred to as AAP or something. Right.