The royal commission into antisemitism’s interim report should improve safety. But what’s revelatory is what it does not recommend

The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion recommends high-risk, particularly ‘public facing’, events ought to have the same procedures as Jewish High Holidays, David Heilpern writes. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/Reuters

The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion is in, and offers more questions than answers, as expected. An April report date was always going to produce tentative maybes, and this is exactly that.

Should there have been more than three general duties police officers and a supervisor (with a drop-in commander from time to time) at the Chanukah by the Sea event? What is the assessment of the actions of the police who were there? Given there were other Hanukah celebrations in Sydney that day – including Dover Heights and the north shore – was the allocation of resources reasonable? We will have to wait and see.