On Friday 2 January 2026 every major media outlet in the country was running the news that 120 Australian Business leaders were calling for the Federal Government to call a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi Shootings and Anti-Semitism in Australia.
That was duly reported on by all of the major TV news outlets
Network 10
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10 included soundbites from Alex Vynakour, Ted Baillieu, David Littleproud, and Mike Pezzulo.
Mr Vynakour was the lead interviewee and we can be fairly sure that he is genuine in desiring a Commonwealth Royal Commission. Ted Baillieu is a fill in former Premier of Victoria who presumably thinks there should be a Royal Commission, Littleproud a Nationals leader scratching for a public profile, and former Home Affairs Secretary Pezzulo fundamentally discredited after resigning in disgrace some years ago for playing politics and not being apolitical.
ABC
Mr Vynakour was front man for the call again, reference to James Packer, Phillip Lowe, Woolworths Chairman Scott Perkins, and Jayne Hrdlcka. Vynakour was only soundbite, with Plibersek and Sussan Ley chiming to add their angles. There were references in the report to Phillip Lowe and Glenn Stevens, Jeff Kennett, James Packer as signing the document.
Sky News #1
Sky News has 2 versions of their report on Youtube. The first is an interview with Mr Vynakour done through his laptop.
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Sky News Report
References to ‘some of Australia’s most powerful business leaders’ and specific references to Phillip Low and Glenn Stevens with no specific comment from either and only old file footage of them.
9 Network
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Mr Vynakour opened the batting again. Sussan Ley was slotted in to slag off Prime Minister Albanese, Tanya Plibersek to run the government’s line.
The Nine report gave us a handy list of names who have ostensibly signed the document.
Nine also gave us a highlight of Phillip Lowe, Glenn Stevens, James Packer (a personal friend of Netanyahu), Jennifer Westacott, Jayne Hrdlicka and Grant Hackett.
Nine also slipped into their report a visual of a full page advertisement taken out in the Australian, and the Melbourne Herald-Sun.
As can be seen from the image there is no reference to any organisation which has taken out the full page advertising, no contact address phone number or email, and absolutely no indication that any of the names claimed to have signed the document have in fact done so.
7 Network
The 7 Network gave as Dr Dvir Abramovich to slip in reference to Intifada 2026, referred to ‘prominent business minds’ and gave us a computer graphic referring to ‘Anti-Semetic’ and giving the idea that quality control was not its priority. Seven disabled playback on any websites but Youtube – probably an intelligent thing to do – but the link is here https://youtu.be/zIRNUHa60F8?si=gAZbS9Tr9SvssIPv
The PDF document referred to by the AFR, SMH The Age SBS, and ABC is joint-statement-sntisemitism-royal-commission. That PDF document contains no logo of an organisation accountable for the advertising, and no contact email, number, responsible person or organisation. It simply states
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This joint statement is on behalf of:
Australian Banking Association
Australian Institute of Company Directors
Australian Industry Group
Australian Retailers Association
Business Council of Australia
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia
Insurance Council of Australia
Master Builders Australia
Minerals Council of Australia
At that point a look at the web sites of those organisations reveals
Has no mention of their participation in the statement or about their support for a Royal Commission into Australian Anti-Semitism on their front page but a statement of support for North Queensland floods from January 1.
Has a reference to the statement on their front page, and their support for a Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism in Australia and has it on their media page
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Obligingly the AIG provides a contact and a phone number by the name of Gemma Daley on 0418 148 821
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We will come back to Gemma as she is worth a look at.
Has no mention of their participation in the statement or about their support for a Royal Commission into Australian Anti-Semitism on their front page.
Their media page has no mention either. They too provide a mobile number which checks out, and they certainly came out with a Media statement about the Declaration of Terrorist incident on 16 December so we can presumably expect one real soon about their support for a Royal Commission.
Has no mention of their participation in the statement or about their support for a Royal Commission into Australian Anti-Semitism on their front page.
Has no mention of their participation in the statement or about their support for a Royal Commission into Australian Anti-Semitism on their front page.
At that point the onlookers on Australian streets can only be sure of:
A. Advertising was taken out in the Murdoch Press on Friday 2 January 2026 calling for a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi Shootings and Anti-Semitism in Australia.
B. That advertising has no contact name, phone number or email address for communications with whoever organised and paid for the advertising.
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C. There is no confirmation that any of the names identified as having signed any document have signed anything.
D. The only document in the public domain – as a Press Release of the Australian Industry Group and made available through the ABC, AFR, SMH and The Age – has
no letterhead or organisational insignia for any release
no authorisation official for the release
no contact phone number email or address
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Before cogitating on all that there is a touch more.
Gemma Daley and her phone number – 0418 148 821. She is the point of contact for the AIG, and in that role her boss would be none other than Innes Willox.
But it gets better.
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Type that phone number ‘0418 148 821’ into Google. When done this morning 3 January 2026 it has brought up a number of pages for whom Gemma Daley is a contact for, or has done time with. These include
Independent Schools Australia – that’d be the representation for schools sucking money out of education systems everywhere for private purposes.
Kevin Hogan – The Shadow Member for Trade Investment and Tourism, so that lends a flavour to all the hectoring of Albo about a Royal Commission.
Mathias Cormann – Former Liberal Finance Minister, now Secretary of the OECD
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Peter Costello – Former Liberal Treasurer and Head of the Future Fund
Australian Steel Institute, Property Council of Australia, Minerals Council of Australia, Master Builders Association, and the Clean Energy Investor Group.
6 pages of Gemma’s finest
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Gemma gets around
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Now Innes has previous form when it comes to shaping public sentiment – and aficionados may recall his ‘Immigration Compact‘ stunt of 2018 when exactly the same approach was used as has been used here. Simply assert something into the public domain backed by nothing other than a press release carried by almost nobody and referring to a number of ‘groups’ who palpably know nothing about it.
At that point we could pose the question
‘Has Gemma assumed that all of these organisations were ‘on song’ sufficient to take out an advertisement in the Murdoch press?’
or even
‘Would Innes be OK with that kind of approach?’
From there we could ask the question ‘Is doing that in anyone’s interest in Australia?’ and think about if that is in the interests of all the membership fees of those organisations touted.
Beyond all of that we can say for sure that not a media outlet in Australia has had the initiative or the wherewithal to question what was being put to it. Sure, the paragons of Australia’s print media certainly made sure the announcement was available from their websites. But it is unsigned, no contact details and no authorisation whatsoever. Did any of them think to check if any of the ‘names’ had actually signed or called for anything?
The Broadcast news did no better and debased themselves by running old file video of Glenn Stevens and Phillip Lowe. At least some of them got off their backsides to interview Alex Vynakour and maybe one or two others, while airing some foetid political pointscoring grabs from opposition leaders who could easily have been let in on the game by a serving politician being served by the same advisor who is the contact for the AIG.
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Australia’s industry leaders and Australia’s media have a lot of explaining to do here. Doesn’t the media check anything? Given the line being pushed is that of the Israeli government and that very few Australians are connected with Judaism or Islam the question should also be asked about how many people connected with this are acting in the interests of any Australian.
