Sydney silk Richard Lancaster, SC, has been recruited to lead the team of lawyers assisting the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which is expected to deliver an interim report as soon April.
As the counsel assisting, Lancaster will become the inquiry’s most prominent public face next to commissioner Justice Virginia Bell. His role is to prepare and review evidence, identify witnesses, provide legal guidance and help set the inquiry’s direction.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Bell would head a royal commission earlier this month, after initially resisting demands for a national inquiry as they mounted from the federal opposition, lawyers, business figures and prominent sports stars.
The appointment of Bell, a former High Court justice, was initially contested by some Jewish Australians, but peak bodies for the Jewish community ultimately said they would support her position and co-operate with the inquiry.
Lancaster’s chambers on Thursday confirmed he had been appointed counsel assisting. An official announcement on the team of lawyers he will lead expected from the royal commission in coming days.
He is a Sydney-based barrister who was appointed Senior Counsel in 2009, after being called to the bar in 1997. Lancaster has appeared regularly at the Federal Court and NSW Supreme Court, and has appeared on several occasions in the High Court. His areas of expertise span public law, commercial law, intellectual property, media and technology, and environment and planning law.
He has worked on several prominent cases, notably a successful challenge against the then Morrison government’s $21 million grant to Imperial Oil & Gas to pursue fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.
He is chair of the NSW Bar Association’s climate change committee, serves as environmental counsel to the board of the NSW Environment Protection Authority, and a member of the NSW Bar Association’s working party on the over-representation in the justice system.
Bell will assess Lancaster’s evidence alongside that of other witness testimonies and submissions, including a security review by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson, in delivering her report. The Albanese government has said it expects an interim report by April 30, and the final report is due on December 14 this year – a tight turnaround time for such an inquiry.
The royal commission has four key terms of reference: one, investigating antisemitism and its key drivers, including religious extremism. Two, bolstering law enforcement and immigration to respond to antisemitic conduct. Three, examining the circumstances of the Bondi attack. Fourth, anything else that strengthens social cohesion and counters extremism.
Bell formally commenced her role last week, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland told the parliament last Tuesday. “The commissioner has now formally commenced her role and is wasting no time in operationalising the royal commission,” Rowland said.
“The royal commission will be an important opportunity for Australians, particularly Jewish Australians, to have their voices heard and to speak to their experiences. It is also important to note that the royal commission must be conducted in such a way that it does not prejudice any future criminal proceedings.”
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