Businessman and former university chancellor David Gonski wants ethics classes similar to those in NSW public schools to be rolled out across all levels of education, and lessons in antisemitism to start as early as preschool, in a bid to combat hate in Australia.

Gonski, the author of two seminal reports into school funding for the Gillard and Turnbull governments and chair of the federal antisemitism education taskforce, told the royal commission on antisemitism on Tuesday that education was key to improving social cohesion.

The veteran board director and former UNSW chancellor said his taskforce – which had met monthly since being appointed by the federal government days after the December 14 Bondi massacre – had been presented with several initiatives which he said showed significant merit.

He singled out NSW Education Department boss Murat Dizdar’s decision to devote one of his annual staff development days to social cohesion, a move Gonski said was a mark of strong leadership.

Gonski also said it was his “passion”, supported by the taskforce, to see ethics classes offered across all levels of education. He said the business sector could also benefit from such teachings.

“There is a thing called Primary Ethics and amazing as it may sound, Primary Ethics is only taught in NSW to those who don’t go to religious classes, which, if you think about it, is a bit odd,” Gonski told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

“I think that the concept of having an ethics institute around Australia, which is available to run primary, secondary, and as I mentioned, tertiary, should be something that’s very important going forwards.”

Primary Ethics is the sole-approved provider of ethics in more than 500 NSW public primary schools and was introduced in 2011 as a secular alternative to scripture classes.

“And I should also add, because nobody’s beyond reproach, maybe there should also be ethics for business, and so on as an extra adjunct, to actually ask questions like: what is the right thing to do? Just as Socrates asked. We think that’s quite a compelling [idea],” Gonski said.

Gonksi said the taskforce believed education on social cohesion should start as early as preschool. He was also hopeful the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority review of the school curriculum would lead to not only more education about the Holocaust but also the contributions of Jews and the Jewish faith to Australia.

Counsel assisting Richard Lancaster asked him about Education Minister Jason Clare’s initiative to require universities to adopt a definition of antisemitism. Gonski hoped the new rules would “state one or two definitions acceptable under the standard”, but not be so open-ended as to allow universities to pick any definition they like.

Gonski said he accepted that “many” prefer the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, but he thought it would be a “very good solution” to allow universities to choose between that or the Universities Australia definition.

As chair of the government’s antisemitism education taskforce, Gonski was given 12 months to bring together state education ministries, universities, tertiary education authorities, private and religious schools, and the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority, the agency with oversight of the pre-school sector, to develop a response.

Jillian Segal, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, is also a member of the taskforce.