Senior home affairs official says no major changes planned to ‘scientifically calibrated’ focus on terrorism after attack

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Australian security agencies had no information to suggest the man accused of the Christchurch mosque massacre should be placed on a watchlist or prevented from leaving the country, a Senate committee has heard.

However, there were no major changes being made to Australia’s “scientifically calibrated” focus on different types of terrorism, the home affairs department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said.

Pezzullo, who is responsible for most of the country’s security and intelligence edifice, said the accused gunman, Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant, had spent just 45 days in Australia during the past few years.

“There was no reason to restrict his movement because nothing had come to attention ... to suggest that he was on a pathway to violence,” Pezzullo told a budget estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday.

Senate censures Fraser Anning for 'shameful' Christchurch comments Read more

“There was nothing in any of our systems that would have suggested that either this person’s travel be restricted, or that he otherwise be the subject of law enforcement attention, up to and including arrest.”

On Thursday New Zealand police said Tarrant would face 50 counts of murder when he appeared in court on Friday.

New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) Christchurch terror attacks — further charges laid.



Police can now confirm the man arrested in relation to the Christchurch terror attacks will face 50 Murder and 39 Attempted Murder charges when he appears in the High Court in Christchurch on Friday 5 April.

He had travelled extensively from 2010, before arriving in the New Zealand city of Dunedin.

Fifty people died and dozens more were injured in the attack on two Christchurch mosques in March.

In the committee hearing on Thursday, during which Australian senators quizzed department officials about a range of issues, home affairs representatives were asked about their focus on white supremacist terrorism post-Christchurch.

“As abhorrent as we find what happened in Christchurch, do you reallocate resources on anything other than a ruthlessly, scientifically calibrated assessment of the scale, global reach and intensity of the threat?” Pezzullo said.

Christchurch changes the dynamics of the next Australian election irrevocably | Peter Lewis Read more

“If we drop our guard in relation to other terrorist groups who might have global capacity – up until recently in some cases running whole territories known as caliphates – potentially able to mobilise tens of thousands of regrettably battle-hardened operatives, trained in explosives, assassination, long-range sniping and the like.

“If you modulate and you overcorrect your efforts and campaigns in relation to one threat group – as abhorrent as what we find having occurred in Christchurch – you give rise to the possibility that you create space for those other actors to conduct their attacks.”

Senator Linda Reynolds, appearing on behalf of the home affairs minister, added: “Extremism is extremism, whether it’s the right, the left, whether it’s Islamist background.”

She said representatives of the Australian federal police and intelligence agencies would appear later on Thursday and would confirm “this is not a new issue for them” and they have been looking at it.