Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The member would also be aware that the New South Wales government announced that they would have a royal commission, and we responded at about the same time as we announced the Richardson review and said there would be full Commonwealth cooperation, including access to all personnel, all records and everything, which would have effectively made it a Commonwealth royal commission as well. We announced that and said that very publicly. We then, of course, worked with the community on what a royal commission might look like, because we wanted to make sure that we got it right.

There are risks with a royal commission, given that a criminal case will be taking place at the same time, and we needed to make sure they were covered. We needed to make sure, as well, that we got the royal commissioner right, and, in choosing Virginia Bell, I believe we did get it right. We also needed to consult with the Jewish community. We sat down and went through it line by line, days before the royal commission was announced, to make sure that that occurred. The character assassination of Virginia Bell that took place in some sections of the media, and was briefed out by some people associated with that side of politics, shows the problem that would have occurred had we not announced not just a royal commission but who the commissioner was and what the terms of reference were and had the support of the community for those terms of reference. I thank ECAJ for making sure that that occurred. They engaged respectfully. There was one meeting that went for over four hours.

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