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Australian PM orders police, intelligence review after Bondi attack / Photo: Handout - AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE/AFP
NYSE - LSE
Australian PM orders police, intelligence review after Bondi attack
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Sunday he has ordered a review into the police and intelligence services after two gunmen shot and killed 15 people at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach.
A father and his son are accused of spraying bullets into the family-thronged Hanukkah celebration on December 14, allegedly inspired by "Islamic State ideology".
Albanese said his government will examine whether police and spy services have the powers, structures, and sharing arrangements "to keep Australians safe".
"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
"Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond."
Gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the Bondi attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.
His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who survived and remains in hospital under police guard, is facing multiple charges including terrorism and 15 murders.
The son was investigated by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2019 for possible radicalisation but was found at the time not to pose a threat, according to Australian authorities.
His father was also questioned by the intelligence service as part of that review, but he managed to obtain a gun licence that allowed him to own six rifles.
A few weeks before the Bondi Beach attack, the pair returned to Sydney from a four-week trip to the southern Philippines that is now under investigation by detectives there and in Australia.
In the aftermath of the mass shooting, Albanese said there were "real issues" with the country's intelligence service.
"We need to examine exactly the way that systems work. We need to look back at what happened in 2019 when this person was looked at, the assessment that was made," he told national broadcaster ABC.
Asked in a separate interview about the alleged gunmen's trip to the Philippines, Albanese said their radicalization was under investigation.
"But it is also the case that they were not seen to be persons of interest, and that is why this is such a shocking event," he said.
V.Watson--SMC
