Now is the time for the Royal Commission to deliver, not be politicised

As the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion concluded its final public hearings this week, it faces its biggest set of challenges to date.

The first is to deliver a final report which makes comprehensive findings about the spread of antisemitism in Australia over the past three years, and recommendations that can be practically enacted and make a real difference to reduce its prevalence across our society.

But the other challenge it faces is to rise above the politicisation and partisanship that has infected all discussion and debate around antisemitism in this country and hampered efforts to tackle it at every turn.

For the most part, the Royal Commission has provided a welcome respite from that politicisation. It has provided a meaningful platform for the community to raise its voice on how antisemitism has impacted us through our own experiences across every facet of Australian life, not least those who survived or lost loved ones at the Bondi terror attack.

But it has also heard from community and religious leaders; security and extremism experts; and probed representatives of law enforcement, government and security regulators; universities and schools; social and traditional media platforms; and the cultural and creative sectors.

This list is not an assurance of the exhaustiveness of its witness list, nor an endorsement of its work – most of which has been done outside the public eye, and can only truly be judged when we see its final report.

However, it is important that it has been largely able to probe these serious and difficult issues in an independent and controlled forum, away from the combative, partisan and sensationalised worlds of our parliaments and our media.