Greg Barton

I think making the counterterrorism coordinator full time and sort of linking that back in with crisis management, so sort of upping the priority for counterterrorism.

I think this is a Royal Commission interim findings into a particular incident, but it also sits in the context of the time in which we live in 2026.

And I think we're unfortunately going to expect more terrorism, more terrorist attempts on terrorist incidents rather than less for a variety of reasons, but both the far right and jihadi Islamist groups are

gaining in strength.

And of course, conditions in the Middle East make it easier for them to recruit and to find somebody to carry out a mission.

So all of that is grim.

So we need to brace and prepare for it.

I think some very specific things about points of failure and how that can be addressed when it comes to the Bondi terror attack.

I imagine, I certainly hope that at least one of those recommendations would cover what is often referred to as countering or preventing violent extremism, which sits alongside counterterrorism.

Counterterrorism is the police-led and intelligence-led detection and disruption side of things.

So in the case of the Bondi terrorist

Shooters, the alleged younger shooter, investigated by ASIO 2019.

By 2020, they said he was not a priority.

Somebody should have been keeping an eye on him and just checking in with him and the family on a regular basis.

And that would generally fall best under countering violent extremism as opposed to counterterrorism.

So I'm hoping that there's a discussion of that there, but it does make sense that that would be done quietly and not part of the public recommendations.

Well, we've got a good example in Victoria.

In the city of Melbourne, you've got four community support groups, they're called, the innocuous name, but they work with particular communities.

A particular concern historically has been Muslim communities just because of targeting of recruiters.

So these work across four areas in the north and west and south of Melbourne, and they provide a way in which community groups are resourced so that if somebody has a concern, it's generally about a young person, generally about a young man, not exclusively.