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Bondi report urges more cops for Jewish gatherings · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, May one, twenty twenty six. The government wants
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  Speaker 1: Australian companies to up their investment in local artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 1: if they don't want data to be sent offshore. AI
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  Speaker 1: Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton will push companies like NAB, Westpac
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  Speaker 1: and Telstra to get on board in a speech on Friday.
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  Speaker 1: That exclusive is live right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot Au. Security reviews, beefed up protection for Jewish
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  Speaker 1: events and counter terrorism training for cabinet ministers. Those are
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  Speaker 1: just some of the recommendations made by Commissioner Virginia Bell
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  Speaker 1: in her interim report from the Royal Commission into Antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: and Social Cohesion. So has it made Anthony Albanese's job
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  Speaker 1: easier or harder? Political Editor Jeff Chambers is here in
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  Speaker 1: just a moment.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very simplistic first take that we've heard from
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  Speaker 2: Virginia Bell, but it's a good first step.
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  Speaker 3: This has to happen. Terror on the Golden Sands of Bondai.
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  Speaker 4: Their targets, the terrified members of Bondai's Jewish community.
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  Speaker 2: It is Australia's worst mass shooting in nearly thirty years.
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  Speaker 3: After fifteen people died, including a ten year old.
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  Speaker 2: Girl, fifty year old Sigid Akron is shot and falls
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  Speaker 2: to the ground. The surviving gunman face caught today and
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  Speaker 2: was moved from his hospital bed to a prison cell.
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  Speaker 4: This should have been an occasion where every Australian could
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  Speaker 4: celebrate what viars a victory of light over darkness.
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  Speaker 1: On Thursday, Virginia Bell handed her interim report from the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Commission into Anti Semitism and Social Cohesion, commissioned after
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  Speaker 1: the deaths of fifteen people at Bondai Beach on December fourteenth,
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  Speaker 1: to Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi. The commissioner recommends Cabinet ministers,
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  Speaker 1: including the Prime Minister, should go through terrorism training after
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  Speaker 1: each election to ensure they're ready for acts of violent extremism.
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner Virginia Bell also recommended police review counter terror operations
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  Speaker 1: and said all governments must focus on implementing the National
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  Speaker 1: gun buy Back, which has stalled in disputes over money
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  Speaker 1: between the States and the Commonwealth. And she says Jewish
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  Speaker 1: festivals that are deemed high risk, like the Harneker gathering
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  Speaker 1: at Bondai Beach should be treated with the same security
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  Speaker 1: priority as the annual twenty four day High Holy Days operation,
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  Speaker 1: when police and intelligence agencies amp up vigilance at synagogues
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  Speaker 1: and community venues to protect worshipers marking Roshashana and Yom Kapoor.
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  Speaker 1: Five of the recommendations made by Commissioner Bell were confidential.
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanezi vowed to implement all relevant recommendations at the
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  Speaker 1: federal level. Jeff Chambers is The Australian's Political editor. Virginia
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  Speaker 1: Bell said in her interim report on Thursday that absolutely
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  Speaker 1: nothing could have been done to prevent the terror attack
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  Speaker 1: at Bondi in December. How can that possibly be true.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very simplistic first take that we've heard from
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  Speaker 2: Virginia Bell. Now, I do assume that off the back
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  Speaker 2: of this interim report, which shows that funding levels have
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  Speaker 2: not been adequate, they will see some symbolic funding for
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  Speaker 2: our national security agencies. I'm sure there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people in those national security agencies that are breathing.
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  Speaker 3: An initial sigh of relief.
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  Speaker 2: I think some of them thought they might end up
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  Speaker 2: being thrown under a bus and As I previously reported,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of departments and agencies had assigned very senior people,
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  Speaker 2: brought in lawyers because there was a lot of big
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  Speaker 2: volume of information at that confidential So there is this
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  Speaker 2: sort of concern that the government could attempt to try
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  Speaker 2: on whitewash what should be a really independent, strong review,
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  Speaker 2: a raw commission.
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  Speaker 3: But it's a good first step. This has to happen.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of points made by Virginia Bell which
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  Speaker 2: I've been reporting on for some time, including this talk
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  Speaker 2: of a counter terrorism coordinator. Now, after the rise of ices,
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  Speaker 2: the Avid government and into the Terminal government ordered a
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  Speaker 2: big review of our counter terrorism operations and systems, and
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  Speaker 2: the counter terrorism coordinator was someone that was supposed to
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  Speaker 2: be a standalone role that brought together coordinated across all
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  Speaker 2: agencies at all levels. Under the Albanesi government, Unfortunately that
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  Speaker 2: role got absorbed into a senior bureaucratic role on Department
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  Speaker 2: of Home Affairs. So there has been this feeling that
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  Speaker 2: not enough resources were being put in place at our
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  Speaker 2: security agencies, at our intelligence agencies, and that the funding
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  Speaker 2: wasn't adequate. And I've heard my else that there has
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  Speaker 2: been people made redundant in some of these areas, So
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  Speaker 2: hopefully this Insroume report will mean that our security agencies
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  Speaker 2: are properly funded.
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  Speaker 1: In her report, Virginia Belle sought to explain the departure
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  Speaker 1: of intelligence expert Dennis Richardson from the Royal Commission. He
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  Speaker 1: was initially drafted to do a review of our security
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  Speaker 1: agencies and their preparedness for an event like what happened
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  Speaker 1: at Bondai in December. There were some concerns when he
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  Speaker 1: did depart the process that this would become what you
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  Speaker 1: called a bureaucratic whitewash. Is that the way it's looking now.
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  Speaker 2: Look again, it's early to say, because this is an
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  Speaker 2: Insurume report, and as the Prime Minister and his key
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  Speaker 2: ministers said today, if there are findings, if there are
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  Speaker 2: real time issues that have to be resolved, they can
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  Speaker 2: be done from now until when the final report is
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  Speaker 2: due by mid December. I think the hiring of Dennis
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  Speaker 2: Richardson was done in a rush. I don't think it
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  Speaker 2: was thought through properly. I truly believe that the Prime
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  Speaker 2: Minister and the government believed that a quick Dennis Richardson
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  Speaker 2: review would suffice SID meant that they.
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  Speaker 3: Wouldn't need to do a raw commission.
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  Speaker 2: The problem with that, obviously is that New South Wales
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  Speaker 2: government said they were going to do one, and you
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  Speaker 2: can't really look into commonwealth agencies at it properly at
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  Speaker 2: a state level, so it had to be done at
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  Speaker 2: a federal level. The Prime Minister finally got to that point.
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  Speaker 2: I think that the security agencies at a federal level
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  Speaker 2: would have been confident in Dennis Richardson. He's a former
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  Speaker 2: ASIO boss, so there was definitely a lot of respect
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  Speaker 2: for Dennis, and obviously he felt like he couldn't proceed
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  Speaker 2: that Virginia Bell's inquiry was sort of overlapping, so it
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  Speaker 2: would have probably made sense for Dennis Richardson to be
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  Speaker 2: made a full raw commissioner. That didn't happen.
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  Speaker 1: What Virginia Bell has identified in this interim report is
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  Speaker 1: a breakdown in communication and collaboration between state and federal
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  Speaker 1: intelligence services and knowledge sharing. She has recommended that there
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  Speaker 1: be a focus on New South Wales in her interim report.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of that, Jeff?
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  Speaker 2: This is one of the oldest stories in law enforcement
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  Speaker 2: in Australia, the clash between New South Wales coppers and
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  Speaker 2: federal coppers. This has been happening for a very long
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  Speaker 2: time and you could argue there's probably some trust that
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  Speaker 2: was broken there. But you've now got new commissioners on
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  Speaker 2: both sides. You've got Chrissy Barrett who has a very
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  Speaker 2: deep connection around counter terrorism and Malanion who showed great
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  Speaker 2: leadership through the Bondai terrorist attack.
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  Speaker 3: So I think they will come together at the end
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  Speaker 3: of the day.
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  Speaker 2: You know, separate organizations, there's always going to be some disagreements.
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  Speaker 2: But the really key thing here is that when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to intelligence sharing, that if there are any deficiencies,
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  Speaker 2: not necessarily blame, but whether it's border screening. What did
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  Speaker 2: ABF and AFP know when this father and son Dio
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  Speaker 2: went to the Philippines, was that passed on to Asio
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  Speaker 2: New South Wales cops and just whatever the history in
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  Speaker 2: the background was around intelligence checks around the gun licenses.
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  Speaker 2: So these are really common, obvious things you need to
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  Speaker 2: do and it needs to be done really urgently, I think,
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  Speaker 2: because what this INTROM report warned about was that the
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  Speaker 2: Jewish Australian community is at more risk now than it
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  Speaker 2: was before the Bondi terror attack, which is really frightening
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  Speaker 2: because there was so many incidents of really serious anti
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  Speaker 2: Semitic attacks, both in Melbourne, Sydney and elsewhere that happened
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  Speaker 2: from October twenty twenty three all the way up to Bondi,
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  Speaker 2: and the argument was that the federal government had never
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  Speaker 2: really taken it seriously enough.
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  Speaker 1: Flairs were thrown, anti Semitic slurs, chanted and an Israeli
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  Speaker 1: flag set on fire during that illegal pro Palestinian rally
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  Speaker 1: last night at the Opera House.
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  Speaker 3: And it was four o'clock.
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  Speaker 1: This morning when Lewis's Continental kitchen caught fire. This is
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  Speaker 1: on KERL Lewis Street here in Bondi. Melbourne' Jewish community
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  Speaker 1: is in shock after a fire bomb attack on one
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  Speaker 1: of Australia's busiest synagogues.
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  Speaker 2: Fire. We do not ever want to see that happen again.
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  Speaker 2: So whatever's being talked about should be done very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: There's obviously things that are redacted and confidential that will
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  Speaker 2: go really to the heart of that intelligence sharing story
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  Speaker 2: and what broke down, how it works, and they need
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  Speaker 2: to rectify that asap.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm struck by the timings recommended by Virginia Bell
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  Speaker 1: in this report. She recommends, for example, making sure that
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  Speaker 1: the counter Terrorism Handbook is updated every three years at
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  Speaker 1: least after discovering that that hadn't been done prior to
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  Speaker 1: Bondai since twenty nineteen, but that's almost a full term
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  Speaker 1: of government. Is this really the kind of speed that
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  Speaker 1: we require in this situation given the frequency of anti
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  Speaker 1: Semitic attacks that are happening in Australian society before Bondai.
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  Speaker 2: And I think the most important element is that the
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  Speaker 2: federal government and their top bureaucrats take national security seriously.
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  Speaker 2: And there was even a recommendation in there where it's
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  Speaker 2: said that the members of Anthony Albernesi's NSC National Security
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  Speaker 2: Committee should actually take part in a counter terrorism exercise
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  Speaker 2: so they understand what it involves, how serious it is.
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  Speaker 2: And look, I mean, I'm sure they're taking it very
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  Speaker 2: seriously now, but you know, at no point should any
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  Speaker 2: resource not be made available. There is a big list
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  Speaker 2: of really important agencies and a lot of Australians don't
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  Speaker 2: know how important they are, but they need the resources
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  Speaker 2: and if they're not getting enough resources at any point,
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  Speaker 2: you know they should be provided. So I do have
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  Speaker 2: an issue with this focus on defense. It's very important,
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  Speaker 2: but if we have any deficiencies in any of our
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  Speaker 2: national security architecture.
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  Speaker 3: They need to be fixed immediately.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up more of my chat with Jeff Chambers. Anthony Albanezi,
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  Speaker 1: As you said, took a long time to establish a
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  Speaker 1: Royal commission, despite calls from the families of victims of
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  Speaker 1: the Bondai terror attack to do that. Does his response
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  Speaker 1: to the report handed down on Thursday restore some of
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  Speaker 1: his credibility with the Jewish community? Do you think or
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  Speaker 1: has this actually because of the concerns around the bureaucratic
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  Speaker 1: nature of the recommendations, Has this actually made everything a
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  Speaker 1: lot harder for him?
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  Speaker 3: Look?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think the real purpose of this introm report
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  Speaker 2: was to try and get things moving around fixing any
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  Speaker 2: issues in the national security community, any issues around the
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  Speaker 2: intelligence sharing, law.
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  Speaker 3: Enforcement partnerships through task forces.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's really critic I mean, our terror threat
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  Speaker 2: level is still at probable. It's been at probable since
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  Speaker 2: August twenty twenty four, So that was the real purpose
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  Speaker 2: of that. And so I guess ensure that before the
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  Speaker 2: May twelve budget that they've got this out there and
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  Speaker 2: that anything that needs to be done they can reflect
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  Speaker 2: that through the budget and there should be a close
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  Speaker 2: eye on what funding and resources are made available in
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  Speaker 2: the May twelve budget. I think the rubber hits the
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  Speaker 2: road when this Raw Commission starts holding public hearings and
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  Speaker 2: letting people have their voice, having a good diversity of
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  Speaker 2: voices across the board. And then we head towards the
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  Speaker 2: one year anniversary when the final report is due, and
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  Speaker 2: that report and any updates that we get heading to
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  Speaker 2: that will really display and show how seriously the government
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  Speaker 2: and the Raw Commission is about eradicating anti Semitism and
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  Speaker 2: God forbid, given that the threat level around attacks on
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  Speaker 2: Jewish Australians is at a higher level since the Iran
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  Speaker 2: War erupted that through this process. Hopefully there are no
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  Speaker 2: other incidents, but if there are other incidents, that will
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  Speaker 2: really increase the pressure on this Royal Commission and the
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  Speaker 2: Federal government.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's Political editor. You can read
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  Speaker 1: all our expert analysis and reporting of the Royal Commission's
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  Speaker 1: interim report at the Australian dot com dot au