What police and intelligence agencies knew leading up to the Bondi terror attack will be the focus of a second round of public hearings at a wide-ranging inquiry.
After hearing first-person accounts of rising anti-Semitism within the community, a royal commission will on Monday begin looking at potential failures of security agencies to stop the December 14 mass shooting, which left 15 innocent people dead.
The first witness due to give evidence is ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, followed by senior officers from the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police.
Two representatives from Jewish security organisation CSG NSW are also due to appear.
Among the issues under scrutiny will be security arrangements for the Chanukah by the Sea event that was targeted by two gunmen and what was known by counter-terrorism agencies and police about the shooters.
While some of the proceedings will be open to the public, much will be behind closed doors to avoid impacting national security and the ongoing criminal prosecution of the surviving shooter, Naveed Akram.
As a result, some of the commission’s findings may take years to see the light of day.
“The work of the royal commission has been advanced by hearing from Jewish Australians and others about their experiences of anti-Semitism during hearing block one,” commissioner Virginia Bell said.
In the lead-up to the attack, NSW Police were warned by CSG that a heightened atmosphere of anti-Semitism made a terror attack on the community likely, an interim report by the commission revealed in April.
Police planned to provide a high-visibility presence at the event, but they noted internally there was “no need to stay the entire duration” and ultimately only four officers and one area commander attended the event at various times.
Among 14 recommendations in the interim report was the need for tighter security arrangements at Jewish community gatherings in the future.
Other recommendations included implementing nationally consistent firearm laws and a gun buyback scheme.
It also recommended considering making the role of commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator full-time and making the role of the Australia-New Zealand counter-terrorism committee clearer – including regular briefings to national cabinet.
The report also made five recommendations that were redacted from the publicly released version for national security reasons.
The second hearing block will look at the resourcing of counter-terrorism and the effectiveness of current powers, systems and processes of security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
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