Former Australian High Court chief justice Robert French called on the government to form a nationwide Royal Commission into the Bondi Beach shooting attack, local media reported on Sunday.
French's calls come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to hold a nationwide Royal Commission earlier on Sunday, and announced a departmental review into the terror attack.
"The attack on Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach was a moment of surreal evil. It has given rise to a moral imperative on the Australian nation as a whole," French said. "That is an imperative to consider the conditions which gave rise to the attack and the practical mechanisms which were or could have been available to Commonwealth and State agencies to prevent it.
French continued, "It requires consideration of the measures necessary to strengthen and add to those mechanisms, including enhanced Commonwealth and State cooperation and cooperation with foreign governments and international agencies," he continued.
The formation of a joint countrywide-state royal commission would include input from federal, state, and territory governments, per French's proposal.
This would strengthen statutory powers across jurisdictions and require reporting to every Australian government, he argued.
"A most effective way of acknowledging and meeting the moral imperative generated by the Bondi Beach massacre would be the creation of a whole-of-Australia Royal Commission," he said.
French: Australia's commission must directly confront antisemitism
The inquiry must directly confront antisemitism, French argued, warning against treating anti-Jewish sentiments as simply another variety of prejudice.
"Nor can we avoid a clear-eyed further public examination of the nature and sources of antisemitism and what can be done to combat it," French said, adding that antisemitism should be viewed "not as just another species of racism or prejudice, but as a societal evil with its own longstanding and bloody history... The events at Bondi Beach require a whole of Australia response which transcends politics and which by its very independence generates a powerful force for change," he added.