Melbourne's social cohesion 'fraying', antisemitism inquiry hears

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece has told the antisemitism royal commission of an initiative to remove thousands of "menacing" graffiti at synagogues.

He recommends the inquiry considers funding to allow councils to implement rapid response initiatives for removing hateful messaging.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is in its final days of public hearings.

There has been a "fraying" of social cohesion in Melbourne since the start of the war in Gaza, the city's lord mayor has told the antisemitism royal commission.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has entered its final week of public hearings, with a final report due before the first anniversary of the Bondi Beach terror attack.

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece appeared at the inquiry on Monday to discuss the challenges the local government had faced in addressing division in the community since the outbreak of war in 2023.

"We saw a significant rise of protest in Melbourne and … some fraying of cohesion in our city," he said.

Melbourne has the largest population of Jewish Australians in the country.

Mr Reece said synagogues in Melbourne had been graffitied on a near weekly basis since the start of the war in Gaza.

He said a targeted initiative aimed at removing "menacing" and "threatening" graffiti within one hour of reporting had cleaned more than 3,000 hateful items.

Mr Reece said of those, between 800 and 1,000 items of graffiti were antisemitic in nature.

"One of the things that has been most upsetting to me over the last two-and-a-half years is people telling me they are afraid to come into the city," he said.

"That was particularly focused around some of the protest activity we were seeing, but it was also focused around some of the awful materials we were seeing being put up around the city."

The commission heard one of the incidents which occurred in January 2026 required the removal of 40 posters which depicted one of the Bondi Beach shooters behind the word "Aussie".