Police made 'gross error of judgment' on neo-Nazi rally

The group of roughly 60 demonstrators linked to the Nationalist Socialist Network shouted Nazi slogans and unfurled a large banner with the slogan "Abolish the Jewish Lobby".

"I take it that they were referring to me," Mr Wertheim told the inquiry.

"And other people like me who represent Jewish institutions and Jewish organisations."

NSW police were given a week's notice about the neo-Nazi rally via a permit application but decided against taking it to court.

"Having a phalanx of Neo Nazis on Macquarie Street, where people are passing by," Mr Wertheim said.

"A person of colour could have passed by, a person wearing Jewish religious clothing or Muslim religious clothing.

"The risk to public safety that that would have constituted seemed to me to be a gross error of judgment."

A Royal Commission into anti-Semitism is holding two weeks of public hearings into the lived experiences of Australia's Jewish community. 

Joshua Gomperts told the inquiry on Tuesday he was volunteering with St John's Ambulance at a New Year's festival in regional Victoria and sitting with a group of first responders when one of them pulled out a knife.

"One of the firefighters looks at me, and he goes, 'you're a Jew'," Mr Gompert told the inquiry.

"He pulls out a large hunting knife and looks at me and goes, 'I would skin you the way my family skinned yours in the camps'."

Melbourne man Kovi Paneth told the inquiry he was taking public transport home from the airport on November 26, 2025, when he heard a commotion behind him.

"I heard someone screaming words to the effect of, 'how many babies would you need to kill in Gaza before you will be happy you effing Jew'," Mr Paneth said.

"After another minute or so of him rambling on and saying things, he realised he wasn't going to be able to bait me, so he actually just stopped."

The commission will hand down a final report before the end of the year.