Why Australia needs a Royal Commission
A federal Royal Commission is needed to confront antisemitism and the events leading to the Chanukah massacre.
A Royal Commission is needed to address nationwide issues such as antisemitism on campuses, the adequacy of national counter-terrorism networks, gaps and weaknesses across jurisdictions, and to make recommendations capable of consistent implementation.
The commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department has a substantial Royal Commissions branch very experienced in the complex task of setting up a large Royal Commission rapidly: premises, staffing, protocols, training of personnel and the like.
A Royal Commission would provide a forum for “truth-telling” by Jewish people who have experienced the scourge of antisemitism in its multitude of forms. Testimonies from the Disability Royal Commission informed the wider community of the nature and extent of the abuse routinely directed at people with disability, and helped shape recommendations for change.
A Commonwealth Royal Commission has formidable powers of compulsion. It is one thing for the federal government and institutions such as universities and funding bodies to promise co-operation; it is quite another for them to be required by a national inquiry to divulge information they would much prefer to keep secret.
While it might be open to a NSW Royal Commission to suggest changes to commonwealth laws combating hate speech and antisemitism, any such proposals would lack the authority and moral force of recommendations made by a Commonwealth Royal Commission.
The idea that a Commonwealth Royal Commission will harm social cohesion is misconceived, for several reasons. A national inquiry is no more likely to harm social cohesion than a state one.
Of course a Royal Commission will take time. But we have already seen that a comprehensive inquiry is no barrier to long overdue actions being taken in the short term.
Ronald Sackville is a former Federal Court Judge who chaired the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. This edited extract from The Australian has been reproduced with his permission.