Former Australian attorney general Mark Dreyfus has urged governments to consider banning protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, citing a 2019 High Court ruling that upheld "safe access zones" — exclusion areas within 150 metres of abortion clinics — as a legal precedent for such restrictions. Dreyfus made the call while testifying before Australia's royal commission into antisemitism in Melbourne, where he also advocated for a new federal criminal offence for vilification and stronger powers to remove abusive content from social media platforms. The hearings come as a national count of antisemitic incidents reached a record 1,276 in the most recent reporting year, a 22% rise on the previous year, with Jewish community security organisations warning that the financial and personal burden of protecting schools, synagogues and community events has become unsustainable.