PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks everyone for coming.
As you all know, Australians have been living with a heightened terror threat for some months now.
We've had already two brushes with terrorism here in Australia: we had the incident involving two police officers in Victoria late last year and then just before Christmas we had the horrific Martin Place siege here in Sydney.
As all of you I think know, there are now about 100 Australians who are fighting with terrorist groups in the Middle East, particularly the Daesh death cult. We've got about 150 Australians who are supporting those people through recruiting and fundraising. We've had about 30 Australians killed fighting with these various terrorist groups in the Middle East and we've had about 100 passports cancelled.
So, this is a serious issue.
We've also got about 400 priority ASIO investigations into people who would do us harm.
But, I want to say to you that our police and security agencies are the best in the world and they are ever vigilant to keep our community safe, and in the early hours of this morning we saw another example of the effectiveness and the efficiency of our police and security agencies in keeping our community safe.
There were a series of raids in metropolitan Melbourne. Five people were arrested. We are expecting three to be charged. Two will be charged with preparing a terrorist act. The act that we believe was in preparation involved attacks against police officers on Anzac Day. That's as much as we can say at this stage except for this: that we believe that the potential attack was inspired by the Daesh death cult in the Middle East.
As I said, we've had this serious threat for quite a few months now but we have responded effectively to it at all stages and thanks to the professionalism and the diligence of our police and security agencies, I expect that to continue.
I want to thank the Australian Federal Police, particularly Acting Commissioner Michael Phelan who is with me today, but I obviously thank the Victorian Police and the Victorian Government for the work that they've done as well.
I guess the final point I want to make is that people should turn up at Anzac Day events in the largest possible numbers and the best thing you can do in the face of those who would do us harm is live your life normally.
The best sign of defiance that we can give to those who would do us harm is to go about a normal, peaceful, free and fair Australian life.
And I say to everyone who is thinking of going to an Anzac Day event: please don't be deterred. Turn up in the largest possible numbers to support our country, to support our values and to support our armed forces.
Michael, do you wish to add anything?
ACTING COMMISSIONER PHELAN:
Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you for those words.
If the events of this morning show anything, it does show that your security forces and the Australian Federal Police and state police are working very closely together to try and stop as many terrorist plots as we can.
The powers that have been given to us by the Government have allowed us to go early and as I've said on a number of occasions now, this is a new paradigm for police. The attacks – these types of attacks that are planned – are very rudimentary and simple and as we've said before, all you need these days is a knife, a flag and a camera and one can commit a terrorist act. So, it's very different. It's a different paradigm for us.
The other thing to get across is that the threat is real and that everybody is working together to try and stop that threat and that culminated this morning in 200 police officers from the Victorian and Australian Federal Police working together to do seven search warrants this morning.
We are extremely confident that this particular cell and these particular plans, we have now wrapped a plan around them and that we believe that we've stopped these particular plots.
PRIME MINISTER:
Do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
There have been suggestions that the people who were involved in these plans had a link to the other young man who was killed and had his own potential plans. Why weren’t these men found last year?
ACTING COMMISSIONER PHELAN:
Certainly, there are links to Numan Haider who was shot by police in September last year. The issues are that these people have been on our radar, particularly late last month, then the investigation ramped up when it became very obvious to us that their plans were specific.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you feel that there could be similar attacks planned here in Sydney?
PRIME MINISTER:
We don't believe there are any attacks planned. This was the only attack that we were aware of at an advanced stage of planning and it was precisely because this was a potential attack at an advanced stage of planning that the police and security agencies moved as swiftly as they have.
QUESTION:
When you talk about an advanced stage of planning, on the one hand you're saying these very rudimentary plans – all you need is a knife – on the other, you're saying it had reached an advanced level. Can you give us any indication of how much planning went into this attack?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ll ask Acting Commissioner Phelan to address this in a moment, but to be a terrorist you don't need that much more than a knife, a flag and a camera phone except for this: you need the will to commit a terrorist act. The intention to commit the terrorist act will often evolve over time and the job of our police and security agencies is to keep appropriate tabs on people who we think might have the will and to see whether it crystallises into an actual intention to commit a terrorist act and it was in the course of that kind of monitoring that our police and security agencies came to the conclusion that a terrorist attack was imminent.
Michael?
ACTING COMMISSIONER PHELAN:
That's right. Thank you, Prime Minister.
Investigations into counter-terrorism are different to other types of investigations into other crimes. Generally, when we’re investigating serious drug trafficking or other crimes similar, we can let things go until we get to a point where we can interdict them. We do not have that luxury when we're investigating counter-terrorism matters. We monitor as best we can, but as soon as we think it is getting far too close and the risk to the public is too great – and remember, the public is paramount in all of our considerations when we're determining to take any overt action. In this particular case, we believe they had both the capability and the intent to commit and plan the terrorist attacks and we did not want to go any longer and that's why we took the action when we did this morning, and swift action.
QUESTION:
What kind of security can we expect to see at Anzac Day services this year in light of what's happened today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I've just spoken to Premier Daniel Andrews and there will be a strong police presence at all major public events over the Anzac period. I think you can be confident that much the same will be true right around Australia. So, you can be confident that we are doing everything we humanly can to keep our people as safe as anyone can be.
I should also point out that while security for events on the Gallipoli Peninsula is the responsibility of the Turkish Government, there's been the closest possible liaison and the closest possible cooperation between Australia and Turkey in the lead up to the event. There will be a very strong security presence on the Gallipoli peninsula. My advice is that almost 4,000 Turkish police and security personnel will be deployed.
So, I want to assure people that everything that authorities can do to keep you safe is being done, but the other point I want to make is that the best thing we can do to counter terrorism and the threat of terrorism as individuals is to lead normal lives. The greatest act of defiance that Australians could make towards those who would do us harm is to turn up in very large numbers at Anzac Day services to show support for our country, our values and our armed forces.
QUESTION:
Will there be additional security, in light of today's arrests, at Sydney Anzac Day events?
ACTING COMMISSIONER PHELAN:
Certainly I've been talking to my state police colleagues over a period of time and there's a heightened level of security anyway, but we are very confident and working with our state and territory colleagues to think that we do have a good handle on what's going on. As the Prime Minister said, we have no other specific threats in relation to Anzac Day ceremonies anywhere throughout the country beyond that which we interdicted today.
QUESTION:
So, as planned before today?
ACTING COMMISSIONER PHELAN:
As planned, and those plans were pretty well developed, as I understand, and are being well progressed.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, thank you so much.
[ends]