Gutnick says antisemitism was allowed to come into the open at royal commission

Sheina Gutnick told the royal commission that antisemitism had been “allowed to come into the open,” putting the focus on whether warning signs were normalized before the Bondi Beach massacre rather than only on the grief that followed. Gutnick, who was the first witness to give evidence at the public hearings in Sydney, said she had been abused as a Jew while shopping with her baby.

Her testimony carried the weight of a family loss that sits at the center of the inquiry. Her father, Reuven Morrison, was killed in the attack after hurling a brick at one of the gunmen while trying to protect others. The Bondi attack on 14 December 2025 killed 15 people and left dozens more injured during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was established on 9 January 2026 in response to the attack and is being led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell AC SC. Its first hearing block was built around lived experience in the Jewish community, with some witnesses allowed to use pseudonyms for safety and privacy. That framing signaled a broad inquiry into how abuse, threats and social hostility could build in plain sight before violence struck.

The commission was set up to examine antisemitism in Australia, the circumstances surrounding the Bondi attack and wider questions of social cohesion. Its interim report was tabled on 30 April 2026 and set out 14 recommendations. The final report is due on 14 December 2026, a year after the killings that prompted the inquiry.

Pressure for a federal royal commission had already been building from victims’ families. An open letter signed by 17 families called for a national response to the rise in antisemitism after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and raised concerns about security and policy failures that they said had not been addressed quickly enough.

The Bondi attack also forced a broader government response. National Cabinet promised stronger gun laws and new counter-terrorism measures, while the federal and NSW governments declared Sunday 21 December 2025 a Day of Reflection for the victims. The commission now has until December to determine not just who failed after the attack, but what was missed before it.