Southwick critical about Royal Commission silence

Caulfield MP David Southwick has criticised the Royal Commission on Antisemitism for failing to call him as a witness, saying his office wrote to the commission repeatedly and lodged a submission without receiving an explanation.

“We’re very disappointed at the fact that we have not been called and didn’t even really hear back as to why,” the Victorian MP told The AJN.

He said he was also disappointed that Goldstein Liberal MP Tim Wilson and former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg have not been called, describing it as troubling that people willing to bear witness are being passed over.

Southwick said his office had absorbed much of the community’s response to antisemitic incidents since October 7, work he estimated took up “the best part of 70 per cent” of his job.

His office had been “ground zero for many of our community to be able to respond, to provide support”, he said, and had heard accounts directly from people who experienced antisemitism before those cases were taken to police and government.