Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is inching closer towards announcing a federal inquiry into the shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Australia's most famous beach, in which 15 people were killed and more than 40 injured.
Mr Albanese is considering appointing former high court justice Virginia Bell to lead the probe, prompting disquiet among some members of the Jewish community because of her previous rulings on protest laws.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said whoever runs the commission should have broad support.
"A consensus on who is chosen to be the royal commissioner should be a minimum requirement," he told AAP in a statement.
"This royal commission, which will examine what led to the worst attack in our nation's history and the crisis of anti-Semitism, must have the confidence of the Jewish community."
Federal Court judge Michael Lee and former chief justice James Allsop are also in the frame to run the commission.
Because of a ruling she made in 2017 alongside a majority of High Court justices, some in the Jewish community believe Ms Bell is too progressive to lead a royal commission.
In 2025, pro-Palestinian demonstrators used the 2017 judgment to help overturn laws banning protests outside places of worship in NSW, including synagogues.
Ms Bell also previously investigated former prime minister Scott Morrison's multiple ministries saga.
Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, previously the nation's most senior Jewish minister, said the former justice was the wrong pick because she would not have community support.
"After more than two years of unprecedented hate, harassment and violence directed towards the Jewish community, culminating in Australia's deadliest terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, it is unthinkable the prime minister would choose a commissioner that did not have the total confidence of the Jewish community," he said in a post on the social media platform X.
But Ben Saul, a widely respected expert on international law and the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights, said Ms Bell was highly regarded, fair, and impartial.
"It is time to stop politicising any Bondi inquiry," the professor said in a post on X.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she wouldn't comment on individual names, but called for three commissioners to be appointed: one with a legal background, one expert in national security, and one from the Jewish community.
"This model is the one that we know will answer the call. The call for unity, the call for purpose," she said.
A new poll published by News Corp on Thursday showed 54 per cent of voters agree or strongly agree that the government should call a national royal commission.
The survey of 1608 voters conducted earlier this week also showed 19 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed, with 27 per cent unsure.
Across party lines, the strongest support, as indicated by those who strongly agreed or agreed, was among One Nation voters (73 per cent), followed by Coalition voters (68) Greens voters (46), and Labor voters (42).
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