The former attorney-general of the Albanese government has urged the Commonwealth to enshrine stronger take-down powers that would allow people targeted by harmful online abuse to take matters into their own hands.
The Labor MP also suggested exclusion zones could be set up around Jewish schools and synagogues to keep protests at bay, similar to laws that exist for abortion clinics.
The proposals were made by long-serving Jewish MP Mark Dreyfus KC as he gave lived experience testimony to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Melbourne today.
Mark Dreyfus shared his family history with the commission, detailing how three of his grandparents were killed during the Holocaust. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Mr Dreyfus, whose father fled the Nazi regime as a child, also gave detail of being personally targeted amid an upsurge in antisemitism in Australia in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
This included graffiti invoking a harmful trope appearing outside his electorate office and being labelled a "genocidal Zionist" by a stranger he greeted in Melbourne's CBD about two years ago.
"By this point I had been a member of federal parliament for some 17 years," he said.
"I had never experienced that form of abuse.
"No-one had ever hurled abuse at me because I am Jewish. This was a new development in my engagement in Australian politics".
The electoral office of MP Mark Dreyfus was vandalised in May 2024. (Supplied)
While Mr Dreyfus said he was a "very proud" Zionist because he supported the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, he said that did not mean he necessarily supported the Israeli government.
"The line, if we can call it that, is crossed when criticism is directed at Jewish Australians simply because they are Jews. Or equally bad when Jewish Australians are held responsible for the actions of Israel," he said.
"That is crossing a line. We've seen it over and over again."
Former attorney-general pushes for tougher online moderation
Mr Dreyfus urged the commission and the government to consider stronger takedown powers as a "useful addition" to the latter's work developing a digital duty of care, a framework that puts the onus for harm reduction on digital platforms.
Under the proposal, people affected by online abuse or content could initiate court or tribunal proceedings to have it removed, without being disadvantaged by the significant resources of their big tech opponents.
"There's a need to attend to enforcement," he told the commission.
"It can't just be left to the eSafety Commissioner. It can't just be left to a single agency of the Commonwealth.
"There has to be an ability for citizens, anyone affected by what's published, to say, 'take that down' and then that they not be oppressed by the disparity of resources."
Representatives from major social media platforms Meta, TikTok and YouTube fronted the commission earlier this month.
Some social media giants, including Elon Musk's X Corp, have come under fire after the royal commission expressed frustration at their refusal to engage.
Mark Dreyfus told the royal commission he supports stronger systems for moderating of abusive content on online platforms. (Supplied: Unsplash)
The take-down proposal was among about four recommendations Mr Dreyfus outlined over about an hour in the witness box.
The others included strengthening Commonwealth vilification protections and tightening firearm ownership restrictions.
He also said it was time to consider national restrictions on protests outside Jewish synagogues, schools and places of gathering, similar to steps that have been taken in New South Wales and Victoria in recent years.
"Not to ban political protests, not to say that people cannot express their opinions in our community,"
he said.
"But rather to protect Jewish Australians from going about their worship, from gathering, from going to school, which should be free of protests occurring."
A Labor party veteran, Mr Dreyfus rose to the position of attorney-general before he was dropped from the frontbench following last year's federal election.
He continues to represent the seat of Isaacs in Melbourne's south-east.
Security of Jewish communities under a spotlight
The commission has this week turned its focus to security arrangements for Jewish communities, their funding and their interaction with governments and law enforcement agencies as its hearings continue in Melbourne.
"The evidence received and to be received by the commission shows a substantial and ongoing threat to the safety and security of the Jewish community in Australia," counsel assisting Richard Lancaster SC said in an opening statement today.
"The threat exists on many fronts."
As well as Jewish leaders, the commission is expected to hear from police agencies in multiple states, a counterterrorism expert and an assistant secretary from the Department of Home Affairs in the coming days.
The commission last week heard from Jewish students and tertiary education sector leaders as it probed the extent of antisemitism on Australian university campuses.
It will next week turn to steps that could be taken to prepare for an incident similar to last year's terrorism attack on Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people and eventually saw the royal commission called.
