A democracy is only ever as strong as its institutions and people’s trust in it.

And yet, just this month, we have had Jewish people denied leave to appear in front of the royal commission into antisemitism, where they wished to speak on their experiences of antisemitism, as critics of Israel.

No one can really explain why.

Just this week, it became known that the Attorney-General’s Department had delayed the return of FOI documents so they wouldn’t be in the public domain ahead of a Senate estimates hearing last year.

Again, no one can say why.

The antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, hired the company run by Scott Morrison’s former principal adviser, Yaron Finkelstein on a $200,000 taxpayer-funded contract, without a public tender process.

For that, there was an answer: “Their knowledge of the Jewish community and the specialist nature of the work that they needed to do were part of the justifications for this procurement,” Home Affairs official Charlotte Tressler told a Senate estimates hearing.

Northern Territory police announced no charges would laid in the death of 24-year-old Kumanjayi White. The Warlpiri man died while being restrained by two police officers in the confectionery aisle of a Coles supermarket. There’s still no official cause of death known, but also no “reasonable prospects of conviction”, so case closed it seems.

The news director of the public broadcaster suddenly resigned this week, while the managing director admitted he had been “scouting informally” for his........

© The New Daily