Beyond the interim report of the Royal Commission: calls for a broader strategic reset based on community monitoring not just police enforcement
Social Cyber Institute
Key Facts:The report of a February workshop convened for Australia's leading counter-terrorism policy specialists by the Social Cyber Institute has a different vision than we see in today's interim report of the Royal Commission on anti-semitism
The Social Cyber Institute welcomes the interim report of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion and its urgent focus on the lessons of the Bondi terrorist attack: firearms regulation, policing, and the protection of the Jewish community and other vulnerable groups.
The report is an important first step in addressing the immediate failures and risks exposed by the attack. Its recommendations on counter-terrorism coordination, counter-terrorism exercises after each election, and new annual report to parliament deserve serious and prompt consideration by all governments.
But as the Royal Commission proceeds with the rest of its work, we hope it will take a broader strategic approach to the changing nature of extremist violence, hate speech and disinformation in Australia.
The starting point for such a reset could be the ideas reflected in a summary report of a workshop of leading Australian scholars on 26 February at UNSW Canberra. Citing Dr Levi West from the Australian National University, the summary suggests that “Australia’s counter-terrorism (CT) apparatus, heavily shaped by the early-2000s counter-jihadist paradigm, may require realignment in response to the current fragmented landscape of mixed ideologies, online-Nihilistic ecosystems and state-linked actors”.
The same report includes a view that governments “cannot meet today’s complex threat environments for hate speech, disinformation and terrorism by assigning leadership of this effort only to security agencies or by over-reliance on legislation”,
“That is the central policy challenge after Bondi. Australia needs effective policing, intelligence, firearms regulation and legal tools”, said Professor Glenn Withers AO, co-founder of the Social Cyber Institute and host of the workshop. “But it also needs a prevention architecture that reflects how violent mobilisation now occurs: through online networks”. This must address marginalised communities, extremist influencers, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, conspiracy cultures and state-linked disinformation.
A serious post-Bondi policy reset must therefore involve communities, schools, universities, platforms, civil society organisations, religious leaders, researchers and technology companies, not only police and security agencies.
“The Royal Commission has a rare opportunity to move beyond reactive law-making and ask a deeper question: is Australia’s counter-terrorism and social cohesion framework fit for the threat environment of the late 2020s?”, according to Professor Greg Austin, also a co-founder of the Institute. “We urge the Commission to treat antisemitism as both a grave harm in its own right and as part of a wider crisis of democratic resilience, online hate and social fragmentation.”
Australia needs not only stronger laws, but stronger civic capacity to resist hate before it becomes violence.
See workshop summary: Terrorism, Hate Speech and Disinformation (26 February 2026)
See Greg Austin commentary: Long road ahead on defeating hate speech and preventing extremist violence in Australia (30 April 2026)
About us:
The Social Cyber Institute (SCI) creates new social science insights to complement technology in the fight for a more secure cyberspace. The Institute is a non‑profit research centre set up eight years ago. We are undertaking a review of the big picture policy gaps in Australia between counter-terrorism policy, controls on hate speech, the regulation of disinformation, and covert influence operations by foreign and domestic actors.
Contact details:
Glenn Withers 0416249350
Greg Austin 0450190323