COMMISSIONER SCIPIONE:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
The events of December last year was an event that in fact stole some of our innocence as a nation. It was an event that will be with us and live with us forever in history.
I, before I hand over to the Prime Minister and to the Premier, would like just to say a few things. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the loss of the families, the Johnson and the Dawson families. Your loss is still with us. We still mourn with you. I don't think that will ever change.
Also to those who had to go through that terrible event, those siege victims that were trapped for so long. We think of you.
I also want to pay my deep respect and honour to all of the emergency service workers that were involved in freeing and saving so many lives. To those that were on the street, to those that were in control rooms, in command centres – your contribution needs to be acknowledged, and today it is.
I would also like to pay my specific and special respect to our tactical people that actually went through that door and into that building to rescue our people. Those brave men gave everything, in fact, put their lives on the line for a reason. That's because they were committed, like I was committed, to get as many people out of there as well as we possibly could in as short as possible time.
So, to those men and to all that were involved, please, from my perspective I would like to thank you.
Lastly, I would like to thank the Australian community, but particularly Sydneysiders. Your spirit shone through. You, like all of us, were horrified by what you saw, but that didn't keep you down. That actually brought out the best of everyone that I saw in Sydney; everyone I met and everyone I spoke to.
Australia can be proud of the way you responded to what was a horrible event. Having said that, that determination is what makes Australia the great country that it is and what makes me proud to be one of you – an Australian.
So to you, to all that were involved, thank you.
I'll hand over now to the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you. Thanks very much, Commissioner, and thanks very much to the Premier and our respective heads of the public service who are with us today. As the Commissioner has just said, the events of December were an atrocity. It was a terrible brush with politically-motivated violence, but it was a tragedy of monumental proportions particularly for the Dawson and Johnson families and our hearts go out to them today as they always will. All of us continue to feel for them in their terrible loss.
As governments, it is important that we learn the right lessons from this particular event and the chain of events leading up to the Martin Place siege and I want to thank the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Michael Thawley, I want to thank the Secretary of the Premier's Department, Blair Comley, for the work they've done in producing this report.
It is a very accessible report. It is a very readable report. It has got clear recommendations and it is something that will repay close study and will prompt a lot of thought and debate in the days and weeks and months ahead.
Plainly, this monster should not have been in our community. He shouldn't have been allowed into the country. He shouldn't have been out on bail. He shouldn't have been with a gun. And he shouldn't have become radicalised.
Plainly, all of these things should not have happened. The difficulty is that while he was well and truly on a lot of radar screens, he was routinely assessed as not being a threat to himself or the community. Plainly, at some stage he did become a threat.
We obviously do need more checks and more scrutiny in the visa process, in the citizenship process. We do need to renew and redouble our efforts in countering violent extremism and I'll have a lot about more to say on those subjects tomorrow as part of my national security statement.
Obviously, in a society such as ours, we cherish the rights of the individual, as we should. We cherish the fact that we are a free and open and welcoming society, as we must always be, but what's pretty obvious from this report is that at every stage this individual was given the benefit of the doubt and plainly, the cumulative effect of the benefit of the doubt being given to him time and time again is that he was able to wreak havoc on our community.
There is an ongoing and inevitable debate in a country such as ours, in a society such as ours, between the rights of the individual and the protection of the community.
My judgment is that – while having always to respect both – the question of precisely where we draw the line in the era of terrorism will have to be reconsidered and the line may have to be redrawn.
I want to say a couple of things before I throw to the Premier.
First of all, I'm very proud of the way that the New South Wales Police and the other emergency services handled the actual siege itself. Yes, we mourn the loss of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, we always will, but the commitment and the professionalism of the New South Wales Police that was on display that day, I believe, to have been exemplary.
I also want to pay tribute to the cooperation at every level between our police forces, our security agencies, our crime fighting bodies – there is a degree of trust and cooperation between different agencies and different levels of government which is almost unimaginable just a decade or so back.
They are ever vigilant to keep us safe and almost every day we are seeing new examples of the effectiveness of their work. Just 10 or 12 days ago an imminent terrorist attack was thwarted because of swift action by the New South Wales Police supported by our other agencies.
Finally, I want to say that no one is more committed than I am to keeping our community safe.
No one is more committed than this Government to keeping our community safe.
I can put my hand on my heart and say that as I love this country, I will not rest until I am absolutely confident that we are doing everything we humanly can to protect our community from those who would do us harm and I'm very proud to be standing with Mike Baird. We worked very closely together on that terrible day, as we do so often on so many issues, but we certainly worked very closely together on that terrible day and I'm proud to have such a comrade.
PREMIER BAIRD:
Thanks, Prime Minister.
I, too, just want to start and say I wish we weren't here. I really do. The events in the middle of December last year are still raw. They still impact on all of us and we are all grieving, as the Prime Minister and the Commissioner have said, but we are particularly mindful of the victims' families and friends today.
They are going through times and events and circumstances we can't really imagine but we do want them to know we continue to be with them, as you've heard.
We are also very mindful of the hostages. They will have scars for life from what they have been through and they are going through very difficult times now. We also want them to know that in their challenges ahead we want to walk with them as they do. The report that has come forward today, the review, I want to thank in particular the Prime Minister. I want to thank his Department and my Department. I think collectively all agencies who provided input into this have done a good job. They have brought forward a number of recommendations that we are recommending and we thank them for the work they have done.
I think the main point I want to make in relation to the review is whilst the review says that the decisions made by agencies were reasonable in the circumstances they faced, and there were many decisions over many years that were made. I think collectively we say, despite this, the community has a strong sense, as I do, that the system let them down. The system has let the community down. So, the recommendations that have come forward we need to act and we need to respond and we will be doing exactly that.
I think in relation to those recommendations, the NSW report is online and you will see our response. There are a couple of points I did want to highlight in particular. There is a point made in relation to identified terror suspects, people who have certainly confirmed as an identified terror suspects, the recommendation is that that information should be provided as part of any bail decisions. I have a view it should actually go further, and this is what we're working with through with agencies over the coming weeks and months. That if someone is identified as a terror suspect and if they are intercepted in the NSW judicial system and they are charged with a serious offence, I have a view they should not be provided bail in that circumstance.
We have to work through how that is effected and we will be working through with agencies, the police, the Federal authorities to make sure that's the case, but I have a strong sense that that is one of the things that we need to be doing as part of this.
In addition, there's also some comments in relation to reduction of illegal firearms. We will be working through that. What is it that we can do as a state and nation to take close to 250,000 illegal firearms across the country, and we need to look at all options we can to ensure that we reduce the number of illegal firearms across this state and nation.
I do also want to conclude in relation to the permanent memorial. I think it is appropriate to reflect that that will be in place at the anniversary. We are consulting with victims' families and friends together with the hostages to ensure that we have something that is a reminder of what happened in December last year – a reminder also of events after it.
I think the Commissioner said this as well. I still reflect and am absolutely proud of what I saw of this city coming together like never before, this state and indeed country coming together. Those events after it, actions that were there to divide us and to incite hate, actually brought unity and peace.
That's what we saw in the event. We need to remind ourselves of that response notwithstanding the events that we saw and the tragedy of those.
We need to bring honour and memory to those victims that we lost but we also need to remind ourselves that as the city and state and country came together, they were the great things, great things about us as a people, about us as a nation. That is something that we'll be commemorating as we bring forward that permanent memorial by the time of the anniversary.
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Mike. Are there any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, I have got to ask, out of all the time that Man Haron Monis was monitored, watched and came before security services, was it never, was it not considered a mistake was made in letting him off watch lists, not watching him closer and if there were mistakes made, is someone going to pay for those mistakes?
PRIME MINISTER:
The report concludes that all the decisions that were made at various levels were justifiable under the circumstances as they existed and were known to exist at the time. He obviously had a lot of contact, dozens of contacts with officialdom at a whole range of levels, whether it be ASIO, whether it be police, whether it be Centrelink, whether it be the health system, including the mental health authorities, he had dozens of contacts with the system and was assessed many, many times but at no stage was the assessment made that he was a danger to himself or to the community.
Possibly we need to go back and look at the criteria upon which these assessments are made and say, "Are they too lenient? Are they too indulgent?" The report, having talked to people, having analysed everything that's on the record, says that the decisions that were made were reasonable enough at the time, but plainly, in their totality, the system has let us down. Plainly, the system has let us down because plainly this guy shouldn't have been in the country, he shouldn't have been out on bail, he shouldn't have had a gun and he shouldn't have been radicalised to the extent that he claimed to be conducting an Islamist death cult attack here in Australia. So, plainly, we need to re-examine the system and ask ourselves at what stage do we need to change the tipping point from protection of the individual to the safety of the community and that's exactly what we're doing and I'll have more to say about this tomorrow in my national security address.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what measures do you think would be necessary to stop someone coming into the country and being allowed to process through the system?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't want to pretend that this is easy because every year our authorities handle hundreds of thousands of applications, indeed millions if you want to take every single application to come into our country, but obviously we need to look at what are the relevant triggers for concern and ask ourselves what should be the consequence if concerns are triggered. As you will see from the report, we knew pretty quickly that this guy had lied in his initial application to come to our country and his behaviour had been bizarre to say the least in the time he was here on a protection visa prior to applying for citizenship. So, I don't have ready-made answers for the community now. What we do have is a careful and considered report which goes through all the facts as best we can know them at this stage about this individual and his history here in our country.
What we do need to do is have a higher level of scrutiny and heavier sanctions for people who game the system when it comes to visa applications and citizenship applications.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister or Premier, can you tell whether the AFP or the army offered to take over police operations on the day or in response to the day or assist in any way and if so, were they rebuffed?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me deal with this one first and then the Premier might have something to say. It was perfectly appropriate that this situation be handled by the New South Wales Police. The New South Wales Police have a lot of experience in dealing with violent sieges. While this was very unusual – it being a violent siege with a political motivation – certainly the New South Wales Police have vast experience in this area. I believe on what we currently know, that it was handled with great professionalism and competence and I have no reason to think that the outcome would have been much different had the military been in charge. There are clearly established protocols for an escalating response. Obviously, there are scenarios where the military do get involved, but those points certainly weren't triggered by the events of Martin Place in December.
PREMIER BAIRD:
Thanks Prime Minister. A couple of quick comments on this. The coroner is undertaking, as appropriate, a review of all the detail and circumstances that actually took place and there will be a detailed response on that and we'll look at all of that as it comes forward. I also say the police did an outstanding job. I was there, the Prime Minister was there, we saw the professionalism. We saw the bravery, the courage beyond any comprehension, I think, all of us should be very proud of every action they undertook, the police, the emergency services – they did everything possible. They did everything possible to get out as many people as they could.
That's what we saw, a group of Australians with all of their training and expertise did everything possible and I think, everything I saw, the professionalism and the courage came as a package and it says to me we are very, very lucky to have them. Obviously, the coroner will be reviewing the event as he should and we'll listen to the inquiry at that point.
QUESTION:
You mentioned that you are going to consider amending the Bail Act further to take into account people's links with violent extremism and terrorism, can you explain given the number of bail reviews that your government has done why no nobody has already suggested this?
PREMIER BAIRD:
It is something that's obviously emerged. We have as the review will show, actually changed the bail laws as we should and that shows that there are stronger protections in place. That's what the community would expect. We have acted and there is greater safety there. That's our job: to do everything possible to keep the community safe. The recommendation is in terms of sharing some of this information, we don't want to leave it to chance in terms of whether the information is shared and I also have a strong view that if someone is an identified terrorist suspect and it comes, he or she comes before the NSW judicial system, and in that they are faced with a serious charge, I want to explore all provisions that ensure that that person is not provided bail. That's my view.
John Hatzistergos who is looking at the implementation as part of that review, the overall bail review is bringing forward recommendations and I want this to be considered as part of it.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, when were you informed that Man Haron Monis, one of his demands was a conversation with you? When were you informed of that and did you actively choose not to engage in that conversation?
PRIME MINISTER:
I was informed of this sometime late on the evening of the siege and my initial response was, well, if he wants to have a conversation with me, of course he can have a conversation with me, but my considered response was, well, we had better get the advice of the police and the advice of the police was that that could easily make a bad situation worse.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just on that last point about whether or not the army should have been involved, if not and the protocols didn't allow it, why did we have that unit down the south east, down at Holsworthy training every year over the city in their Black Hawks for just such an occasion? A unit that was set up by government for that type of incident?
PRIME MINISTER:
Exactly right, but you deploy the force that you need in the appropriate circumstances. In this case, the New South Wales Police Tactical Response Group had the experience and the training and I would say the demonstrated expertise to deal with it.
Yes, the military can deal with these sorts of situations and overseas has dealt with comparable situations, but under the normal evolving response here in Australia to particular sorts of incidents, the first responder is the New South Wales Police. Where the New South Wales Police believe that a situation is developing or expertise is required that is beyond their capability, then the military get involved. At all times on the relevant day the New South Wales Police had the situation well in hand.
Also at all times on the relevant day, our military were ready to assist were they required.
QUESTION:
How would you foster a sense of belonging and inclusiveness for those at a risk of being radicalised?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a fair question and it is where we have to proceed carefully and in a balanced and judicious way. One of the points I should probably make is that in order to effectively run counter-terrorism in this country we need to have strong links with all the communities, particularly communities where some alienated individuals might be susceptible to the lure of the Islamist death cult. It is important to maintain the closest possible links into these communities and I've got to acknowledge now the support that we've had at every level from community leaders, from families, from members of the public, when it comes to identifying people who might be at risk of succumbing to the lure of this death cult. At the same time, though, we have to be very clear about what the Australian community expects of people. What we do not tolerate in our community is people who are actively preaching a message of religious and racial hatred. We do not tolerate people who are actively promoting a message of religious and racial hatred and I'll have more to say about that tomorrow.
We reach out and embrace people, but what we can't do is endlessly tolerate people who are having a lend of us and plainly there are some people who have.
QUESTION:
Would you clear up something from yesterday for us? Did you ever at any point…
PRIME MINISTER:
Let's deal with this issue first.
QUESTION:
One of the community leaders has described it being a mistake, that it is effectively banning an idea. What would you hope to achieve by it?
PRIME MINISTER:
The idea that it is right to behead, to crucify, to execute at random, people in the name of God is an idea which has no place in our society and should have no place in our world.
This is simply evil. It is simply evil. The idea that some religion or some conception of God sanctifies killing everyone who does not subscribe to a particular worldview is just wrong. It is just wrong.
We regularly prescribe all sorts of things in our society. We regularly say certain ideas are absolutely unacceptable and should be illegal and should be in some way prescribed by law and I am saying that this notion that it is somehow okay in the eyes of God or religion to kill people randomly and mercilessly, it is just wrong and it has no place in our society and it should have no place in our world.
QUESTION:
Was there a breakdown in communications between our intelligence agencies in the lead-up to this and on the day? What can be done to rectify that?
PRIME MINISTER:
As you'll see from reading the report, there are some restrictions on what information can be provided between different sorts of authorities and our police and security agencies and we will be looking at what might be done to ensure that relevant information can be more usefully exchanged.
It doesn't appear, based on this report, that further knowledge would have produced a different outcome. The challenge that we're facing is that there are lots of people in our community, some hundreds of people in our community, who are advocating violence against Australians.
The Martin Place murderer right up to the very end was not specifically advocating violence against Australians. He simply went out and practised violence against Australians and without wanting to exaggerate the threat to the community, I don't want to minimise the scale of the problem either.
We have some hundreds of people who are currently talking about violence against members of the community. We have many more people who are susceptible to ideologies which justify violence. We can't monitor all of them. We shouldn't try to control everyone but nevertheless, we do need to be taking all reasonable measures to keep our community safe and that's why two of the areas that I will be very much discussing in my national security statement tomorrow are what we can do and what we should consider to make it more difficult for people to slip through our visa and citizenship net and what we can do more usefully to counter violent extremism within the community.
QUESTION:
One of the recommendations of this report is that media representatives be offered access to government led training exercises for further cooperation. Is that because you had an issue with the way media responded during the siege and afterwards? What's that about? What's your comment about that?
PREMIER BAIRD:
It is quite clear in the review the media did an exceptional job, that's very clear, the question is can we improve coordination and make it easier for media and all of us in terms of distilling information, protocols around what to do at particular times. That really is the main issue as I saw it. It's nothing more than facilitating and providing more information for all of us in how we deal with it going forward.
PRIME MINISTER:
Essentially, without in any way being critical of the media on that day, what we need to do is raise the awareness of those who are educating our community – and the media are essentially a form of community education – we need to raise the awareness amongst the media of the kinds of issues that our police and security agencies are routinely dealing with.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, I would just ask too, would you understand a lot of people would be watching this with perhaps some bewilderment, astonishment, that the report could conclude that at no stage was an assessment made that he was a danger to himself or the community. Given his background, given the number of times he popped up on the security agencies’ radar, given the fact that he was involved in a murdering, stabbing a woman 18 times and then setting her alight. How could a man like that be considered not being assessed as being harmful to the community?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can understand reaction that and that's why I opened up this conference by saying he shouldn't have been here, he shouldn't have been out in the community, he shouldn't have had a gun, and he shouldn't have been radicalised. Obviously all of these things are true. We don't believe that at any particular decision making point, grievous errors were made, but the totality of decision-making let this monster loose in our community.
So, plainly, we have a problem and we are determined to deal with it.
QUESTION:
So, no individual can be held to account?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I suppose the first individuals who might, with the wisdom of hindsight, be held to account are the immigration officials who looked at his case back in the mid to late 1990s, but I do stress in those days the Immigration Department was about welcoming people in, it was about, I suppose, celebrating diversity and I do, I stress, celebrate the diversity of the Australian community, but today the Immigration Department is also just as focused on border protection. So, we have a rather different culture in the Immigration Department today than we did in the mid to late 90s.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, can you please tell us at any point you informally sought advice or looked at the idea of sending 3,500 Australian troops into Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
I appreciate The Australian's continuing interest in this, but let's finish the matter at hand.
Let's finish the matter in hand and then I'll come back to that.
QUESTION:
One extra question, the Premier raised that issue, but it’s to you Prime Minister, raised the issue of the bail and terrorism charges and history in connection to being considered in those bail applications. He seems to be indicating its resistance from the federal authorities to that?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no. Not at all. We want to give the state agencies all the information that we've got. What the state agencies then do is a matter for the state agencies but we will work as seamlessly and as cooperatively as possible with the NSW authorities at every level to keep the community safe.
QUESTION:
Could I ask the Premier about the reduction of illegal firearms in NSW? This has often been a contentious point where the Feds blame the State Government for not doing more for stolen firearms and the state blame the Feds for not protects the borders and the ports. What are you actually going to do about this issue?
PREMIER BAIRD:
Out of this report, the Police Minister will be charged, with this report our Police Minister will be charged with bringing back some recommendations to our Cabinet. We'll be working with the federal authorities as well, obviously with the police. Everything is on the table. I'm happy to look at any measure we need to take to reduce the illegal firearms in our community. That's a natural thing to do in the sense it should be ongoing but obviously with events that we've seen, it is an appropriate time to consider whether there's anything we can do at the moment, and if there is – well, we will.
QUESTION:
Do you have concerns about ports, and guns being imported in that way?
PREMIER BAIRD:
This is a collective issue. This is not about looking where the individuals are blamed. It is a collective opportunity to remove some more illegal firearms from the community and that really is the focus.
PRIME MINISTER:
I probably should add on that score that one of the early acts of the Coalition Government in Canberra was to restore funding to Customs and Border Protection so that screening rates of air cargo which had dropped to below 10 per cent under the former government were lifted to well over 50 or 60 per cent. So, we are doing a lot more at the border than was done and obviously in the wake of this report, we'll be looking to do more again.
PREMIER BAIRD:
Just on Chris' question, the coroner is looking at that. The coroner's report, the source of the gun, is being considered.
PRIME MINISTER:
If we've run out of questions on this, Nicola, I'll just let you know that what I said yesterday I absolutely stand by.
The report was fanciful, absolutely fanciful, and when I spoke to the CDF he informed me that he was as mystified by it as I was.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
[ends]