Former spy chief says media failed to report widely on antisemitism

Former spy boss Dennis Richardson has criticised the media's handling of "blatant antisemitism" in Australia after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and has called for an "open discussion" about extremist Islamists without targeting the broader Australian Muslim community.

Mr Richardson, the former head of Australia's domestic intelligence service ASIO, said some media decisions not to cover antisemitic preaching may have been "well-intentioned" but were ultimately misguided.

"I tend to agree with those who argue that following 7 October we dropped the ball and failed to draw a line," he said in a speech at the Lowy Institute media award last night.

"I'm not implying a straight-line connection to the Bondi terrorist attack, as the ingredients that gave rise to that terrible incident are more complex.

"I do believe however, that a more forceful and consistent response to the blatant antisemitism we saw in the immediate aftermath of 7th of October may well have set a different tone and drawn a clearer line between the acceptable and the unacceptable."

Hamas took more than 250 hostages and killed 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Palestinian health authorities say the ensuing military campaign from Israel has killed more than 73,000 people.

At Bondi beach in December last year, father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event.

Mr Richardson said the lack of media coverage of antisemitic incidents was partly "because of a misguided concern that it might inflame social tensions, as opposed to putting the spotlight on the conduct which deserved to be highlighted and condemned".

For example, he highlighted that comments made by an Islamic preacher — without naming him as Wissam Haddad — in November 2023 were not widely reported by the media until 2025, when a federal court judge found those remarks were "fundamentally racist and antisemitic" and "devastatingly offensive and insulting".

Mr Richardson said the sources of antisemitism needed to be addressed in a mature way, "including open discussion about extremist Islamists, without Australian Muslims as a whole feeling targeted".

"Mainstream Muslim leaders should be at the centre of any such discussion," he said.

"Pretending the issue is not there simply leads to conspiracy theories and plays into the hands of extremists at the other end of the spectrum."

Elaborating on Radio National Breakfast on Wednesday, he said: "You play into the hands of Neo-Nazis, you play into the hands of people who want to pretend that Muslims per se are an issue, when of course they're not."

"When you have a discussion about extremist Islamists, you have a real risk that Muslims as a whole feel under pressure."

He said the fact that some Jewish children needed security to attend their schools and sporting events was a stain on Australia's social cohesion.

"I still do not understand why it took a royal commission to bring into the public consciousness the fact that some Australian kids have to experience their schooling, sporting, and religious life behind the sort of security you would expect to find in a strife-torn country," he said.

In March, Mr Richardson resigned as a special adviser to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack.

After the Bondi attack, Mr Richardson had initially been appointed by the prime minister to undertake a review into intelligence and policing agencies, but that was then folded into the broader royal commission.

Upon his resignation he said he feared he would have little influence over the commission's recommendations and said he had been treated as a "highly paid researcher".