Health sector struggles to respond
Healthcare's response to antisemitism was laid bare at the Royal Commission, with evidence of hidden identities, dismissed complaints and system gaps.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion shined a spotlight on the healthcare sector in sessions on July 29 and 30, exposing a system struggling to respond consistently to antisemitism.
Evidence was given of Jewish patients concealing their identity, doctors reporting a “revolving door” of dismissed complaints, and regulators divided over whether to adopt a common antisemitism definition.
Jillian Segal, the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, told the Commission that Jewish and Israeli patients were “very scared to go into hospital” and were avoiding disclosing their identities.
She called for a national health taskforce to coordinate the “disparate and dispersed” system, modelled on the UK’s response to the Lord Mann report.
The Commission was informed that JewishCare NSW fielded more than 1,000 calls to its emergency triage line in the six weeks after the Bondi attack.
Its CEO Lawson Broad described clients giving false addresses to rideshare drivers to hide they were attending Jewish events, while its president Ben Bolot said “victims of antisemitism should not be required to educate the systems they turn to for support.”
Two senior Melbourne doctors, Dr Jack Green and Dr Adam Gordon, from the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation, gave some of the hearings’ most pointed testimony.
Dr Gordon described a “revolving door” in which practitioners reported for antisemitic conduct were repeatedly cleared by national boards, then reported again.
Colleagues were removing Magen David necklaces at work, he said, and some Jewish patients now routinely asked “whether they will encounter antisemitic sentiment” before going under anaesthetic.
Both doctors urged the Commission to extend Victoria’s ban on political symbols in clinical settings nationally.
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) CEO Justin Untersteiner revealed that antisemitism complaints had risen from just four in the year before October 7, 2023, to 40 in 2025/26, mostly involving social media.
AHPRA adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in mid-June 2026, despite some resistance including online abuse by individuals, and pressure by some unions, to reverse the decision.
“We will not be changing that decision,” Untersteiner said. “I don’t apologise for the work that we do – I stand by it.”
Witness Tim Duck, director of the National Health Secretariat, confirmed that the Health Ministers’ Meeting – a forum held quarterly – has issued no definition of antisemitism yet, despite directing AHPRA and the 15 national boards to overhaul complaints handling, and having the legal power to mandate one.
Sonia Marshall, chief executive of South Western Sydney Local Health District, was not questioned directly on the February 2025 Bankstown Hospital nurses incident, which remains before the courts, but detailed its workplace fallout, telling the Commission staff felt “embarrassed and ashamed” and were “vilified in the community.”
She confirmed antisemitism is not explicitly named in the NSW Health Code of Conduct, though it is captured under general discrimination provisions, and said the District’s aim was “to entirely remove political messages from the workplace.”
Sydney University academic Dr Zhaoli Dai presented a systematic review that found antisemitism is “not routinely measured” in healthcare quality frameworks, creating a “structural blind spot”.