Public Hearing Block 7

Hearing Block 7 set the policing of protests under a spotlight through two events that have become emblematic for many Jewish Australians the Commission was told: the October 9, 2023 march from Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House, and a November 2025 neo‑Nazi rally outside NSW Parliament with a banner reading “abolish the Jewish lobby”.

David Ossip, president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, told the Commission the Opera House protest was “despicable” and “a scene of international disgrace”, describing protesters screaming “f**k the Jews”, “where’s the Jews” and “I’m going to kill them all”, and how flares were thrown at police and flags burnt. He said the advice that Jewish Sydneysiders avoid the Opera House precinct - lit in blue and white as a government gesture of solidarity - and later the CBD left the community without a safe place to mourn and amounted to police “in effect” ceding control of parts of the city to protesters.

NSW Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Peter McKenna defended the handling of what he called a “potentially volatile” situation within tight legal limits. He explained that police believed they could not block a moving assembly simply because no Form 1 had been lodged and that two people carrying Israeli flags were arrested on breach‑of‑the‑peace grounds rather than for the flags themselves. He acknowledged serious communication failures, admitting police had not warned Jewish leaders in advance about the Parliament rally and calling that “human error”, and outlined new processes under Operation Shelter to ensure high‑risk protests are flagged and resourced differently. McKenna has previously acknowledged the gaps in intelligence and response in Hearing Block 2 and Block 5.

Victoria University associate professor Mario Peucker, an expert on radicalisation commissioned by APAN, told the inquiry that non‑violent protest can play a protective role against extremism by offering people a democratic outlet for grievances, citing a UK review of 206 studies. At the same time, he agreed under questioning that violence and hate speech fall outside what he called the “grammar of democracy”, and accepted that the research he relies on does not address protests where racist vilification or threats – such as “f**k the Jews” and “I’m going to kill them all” – are directed at Jewish Australians.