The Australian, 16 July 2026
Royal Commission must mark clean break for our universities
By Jennifer Westacott
From The Australian
In May 2024, as encampments spread across our university campuses, I publicly called out the antisemitism I was witnessing and argued that universities must be places of enlightenment and never places of fear.
After doing so, I received hundreds of messages from grandparents, community leaders, politicians and frightened students. That response told me many Australians felt the same way but had not felt they had permission to say so.
That silence – often because people feel they don’t have all the information they need to voice their concerns – is part of what allowed the shocking wave of antisemitism to take hold.
It also, I believe, underpins the importance of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which is putting the experience of Jewish Australians on the public record.
What unfolded in Australia after October 7, 2023, was not the failure of any one institution. No single university, government or business can be held solely responsible. It was a whole-of-nation failure to comprehend, in real time, what was happening and to respond with the urgency it demanded. It was a failure of our collective leadership.