Former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has slammed the appointment of former High Court judge Virginia Bell to lead a royal commission into anti-semitism.

As the Prime Minister prepares to announce the backflip on the inquiry as early as today, members of the Jewish community are pushing back, insisting former Federal Court chief justice James Allsop or current Federal Court judge Michael Lee are better choices.

“The Prime Minister has been told directly by leaders of the Jewish community that they have serious concerns about this appointment,” Mr Frydenberg said in a post on X.

“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.

“This is a time for unity and national healing.

“This is a time to turn back the tide of hate and antisemitism that has destroyed so many lives.

“Prime Minister, I appeal to you, this is the time to do the right thing and call a Commonwealth Royal Commission with the appointment of the right Commissioner whose leadership will provide the answers and solutions our country so urgently needs.”

Virginia Bell, a highly respected former judge, is understood to be the Prime Minister’s pick to lead the royal commission.

But Sky News reports The PM is also weighing up appointing Justice Allsop amid mounting backlash from the Jewish community.

Justice Lee presided over the defamation trial instigated by Bruce Lehrmann, which found on the balance of probabilities that the Liberal staffer raped Brittany Higgins.

Ms Bell also previously led an inquiry into former prime minister Scott Morrison’s multiple ministry scandal.

She served as a Judge of the High Court of Australia from 2009 to 2021, after serving as a Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW for almost a decade.

Backflip after weeks of political pressure

News.com.au revealed on Wednesday Anthony Albanese was in talks with the NSW Premier Chris Minns to expand the proposed NSW royal commission into a combined state-commonwealth probe, bowing to weeks of political pressure.

In a political backflip designed to end the relentless pressure to hold a federal inquiry, the Prime Minister is considering combining forces with the previously announced NSW royal commission in the wake of the Bondi terror attacks.

News.com.au has confirmed that this combined probe is one of the options being canvassed after another meeting of the national security committee of cabinet on Wednesday morning.

One of the major weaknesses of holding a NSW royal commission is that it cannot directly investigate or compel evidence from the Commonwealth, its institutions, or officers beyond its jurisdiction with the full force of a federal inquiry.

The power of a state royal commission is limited to matters within the legislative responsibility of New South Wales.

Albo warned over royal commission detail

Mr Albanese is under mounting pressure to ensure that the royal commission can call serving and former ministers as witnesses as it examines the lead-up to the Bondi terror attack.

Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, who has led public calls for a royal commission, said it must have the power to compel ministers to give evidence.

This was the case in the robocall inquiry that ultimately included Scott Morrison and other ministers giving evidence.

“The next challenge will be to get the correct focus and scope,’’ Mr Pezzullo told news.com.au.

“Ministers cannot be excluded from scrutiny. It also has to encompass underlying causes and factors – as we said in the open letter, those being principally the explosion in anti-Semitism and the enduring threat posed by Islamist extremism and terrorism.”

Behind closed doors, a group of Labor MPs are pushing for an inquiry into anti-Semitism to run parallel to the probe being conducted into the intelligence agencies by former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson.

“If you asked me two weeks ago, I would have said there’s a 5 per cent chance of a royal commission. My honest assessment right now I would put it at 90 per cent (of a royal commission),’’ a Labor source said.

“They are shifting. We are shifting. We have to. And it will be a matter of time, but we will shift.

“We can’t be on the other side of the victims. And he doesn’t want to be on the other side of the victims.”

Liberal leader Sussan Ley has called on Mr Albanese to move forward with a royal commission as quickly as possible.

“The Prime Minister has delayed, deflected and looked past victims for far too long now,’’ Ms Ley said.

“Australians are watching. Victims’ families are waiting. And the time for leadership is now. What is the Prime Minister hiding? And why is he not listening?”

Probe into Australia’s intelligence agencies

The Richardson probe into intelligence agencies and the Bondi attack, first revealed by news.com.au on December 20, will investigate whether Australia’s security agencies have the powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe.

However, Labor MPs want a royal commission into anti-Semitism to be led by a respected judge that would examine anti-Semitism more broadly, including why Jewish children have to attend school with armed guards.

Mr Albanese is now expected to recall parliament early to introduce hate speech laws, with the possibility MPs could return to Canberra in the week before Australia Day.

Parliament was scheduled to return in early February prior to the Bondi terror attack.

Meanwhile, former Labor MP Michael Danby has accused the Albanese government of seeking to avoid a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack “at all costs”.

“I understand there are some very bitter enders in the Cabinet who are in the socialist left who want to avoid this royal commission at all costs because of things that might come out,” he told Sky News.

“This is a very different government than a normal Labor government. It’s a socialist-left dominated Labor government.

“I’m very pleased to tell you that it’s now up to 25 (signatories) and more former members are putting their names to that petition calling for the government to do the royal commission.

“It ain’t over till it’s over.”