Senator Lidia Thorpe says it was irresponsible for the Minister for Indigenous Australians to encourage First Nations people to lodge submissions to the Bondi Royal Commission, after the Commissioner in charge of the inquiry said on Tuesday it will focus solely on antisemitism.
On the opening day of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion (RCASC), former High Court of Australia justice Commissioner Virginia Bell said antisemitism would be both the starting point and the central focus of the inquiry, which is due to hand down its final report at the end of the year.
"I expect that social cohesion will be advanced by measures that address discrimination against religious faiths, ethnicities and cultures generally, nonetheless against the background of the massacre of innocent people ... targeted simply because they were Jewish," she said.
Senior Counsel Assisting Richard Lancaster indicated the hearings would examine antisemitic conduct in Australia, the factors driving it, how law enforcement and intelligence agencies are responding, and what measures could be strengthened or improved.
Senator Thorpe said those remarks put into focus earlier calls by Malarndirri McCarthy for First Nations individuals and organisations to make submissions to the Royal Commission, arguing Justice Bell's comments show the inquiry's scope and tight timeline "will not allow for a broader examination of racism in this country".
"It is irresponsible to tell our communities, and already stretched Aboriginal organisations, to spend their limited time and resources preparing submissions to a process that is not going to deal with racism against First Peoples," she said.
At Senate Estimates earlier this month, Senator McCarthy, alongside National Indigenous Australians Agency CEO Julie-Ann Guivarra, said she had raised the Royal Commission's terms of reference with the attorney-general, citing increasing levels of hate directed at First Peoples, even before the alleged terror attack on January 26 in Boorloo / Perth.
"I certainly understand in terms of the terms of reference, there is an avenue there," Senator McCarthy said.
"I will be encouraging people to put in their submissions in particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people submissions to the Royal Commission about their concerns about racism and hatred."
During the hearing, Ms Guivarra said the social cohesion component of the inquiry meant the agency, along with several other Commonwealth departments, had been invited to interdepartmental meetings. However, she did not directly answer questions from Greens leader Larissa Waters about whether she had personally "advocated for an explicit term of reference change to address racism against First Nations people".
National Indigenous Times contacted Senator McCarthy for comment.
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Senator Thorpe previously called for the royal commission to be expanded to examine all forms of racism and hate, saying the current scope does not adequately address violence and extremism targeting First Nations and other marginalised communities.
On Tuesday, she renewed calls for the government to implement the National Anti-Racism Framework, delivered by the Australian Human Rights Commission in November 2024, saying that since the alleged January 26 terror attack, "we need serious, targeted action to address growing racism, hate, and white supremacy against us".
"The roadmap is there. They need to stop deflecting and delaying and just get on and do the work," Senator Thorpe said.
"Pointing to this Commission and saying 'see, our government is doing something', in response to our calls for action is disrespectful. It avoids the real work that needs to be done. First Peoples will be a footnote at best in this process."
