ED KAVALEE:

The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, good morning sir

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning great to be with you.

ED KAVALEE:

Why Logan?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it’s an area that’s seen to have a high incidence of drug use, you know, there were nearly 6,500 drug offences in Logan last calendar year and this is a trial, so we’re doing it in three locations around Australia. Canterbury Bankstown has been announced, Logan is the one announced today, the Minister Christian Porter is there with Bert van Manen the local Member.

This is a very, very important trial. Look, you know we all have friends who get into problems right?

ED KAVALEE:

Yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

And if you have a friend or a relative who has got an addiction problem, what you want to do is get them off it. That’s how you show your love and your compassion and support for them. So I think anything we can do to get people who are on welfare, off of drugs and into a job, that is the best, the most loving, supportive thing we can do. So this is a good trial, let’s hope it’s a big success.

ROBIN BAILEY:

Now the general public I think will be right behind it, but not everyone is happy Prime Minister. We were speaking to Luke Smith who is the Mayor of Logan and he said this:

LOGAN MAYOR, LUKE SMITH – RECORDING:

The first we heard about it was when the media contacted us yesterday to give us the heads up. We actually know nothing about this at all. Typical federal government response.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, it’s a federal government program so it doesn’t involve the –  

ED KAVALEE:

It’s got nothing to do with them!

PRIME MINISTER:

[Laughter]

It doesn’t with local government.

So look I hope as he learns more about it, the Mayor will support it. But I think most people will think this is a very sensible approach. It is a trial – we’re going to be trialing it with 5,000 people in three locations around the country and if it’s successful obviously, we’ll roll it out further. If it’s not successful we’ll have to think of something else but you know you can’t.

ROBIN BAILEY:

But don’t you need everyone on board though? I mean realistically for things like this to work, you know you talk about family and friends and you talk about the local members; but don’t you need the council to be participating in this because it’s not a great thing that one of our cities is considered one of the worst drug places in the country.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look drug use is too high everywhere in Australia.

GREG MARTIN:

So let’s test everyone!

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes that’s why experiments and trials like this are important because what you’ve got to do is when you’re taking on a new policy approach is be prepared to trial it and then if it’s successful you do more of it, if it’s not successful you might change it or do less of it or not do it at all.

So you know often say criticize governments for being too conservative and unprepared to adopt change, well the government I lead is innovative, we are prepared to do new things and the sensible way to go about new policies is obviously where you can to trial them.

And that’s what we’re doing and you know if it gets one person, if this gets one person off drugs and into a job that’s a good thing.

GREG MARTIN:

Good one – yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

The best form of welfare is a job, and obviously if you’re on drugs you are not going to be employable and everyone – that is a big factor in many peoples unemployment situation, the fact that they’re incapacitated by drug use.

GREG MARTIN:

Drug dependent yep.

ED KAVALEE:

Well Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull it is nice to have you on the program.

GREG MARTIN:

Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER:

It’s nice to be with you.

ED KAVALEE:

And its led us to believe something – well hang on – it’s led us to believe something because we thought that we’d been speaking to you every week on a Tuesday when this person calls in.

IMPERSONATOR – RECORDING:

Good morning to you Ed, hello to you Marto and Robin. All of you there at Triple M, you good people and we rock Brisbane collectively.

ED KAVALEE:

Are you saying that’s not you, Prime Minister?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s a very fruity version of me, I’m afraid.

[Laughter]

Whoever it is, he’s having a red hot go, but I don’t think it’s true. Certainly he wouldn’t be able to convince anyone I know well, but there you go.

ED KAVALEE:

Sir, he says he drinks Sangiovese and sometimes kayaks, would that be you?

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh yeah no, no.

[Laughter]

ROBIN BAILEY:

He’s got a great sense of humor though Mr Turnbull so –

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah that’s good. Well you’ve got to have a laugh, you’ve got to be prepared and indeed to laugh at yourself.

ED KAVALEE:

Prime Minister, thanks mate see ya.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thanks a lot, see you.

[ENDS]

Mr Martin Bowles PSM has advised me that he wishes to leave his position as Secretary of the Department of Health on September 1, 2017.  

In a public service career of almost four decades, Mr Bowles has built a well deserved reputation as a highly respected leader and driver of innovation.

Mr Bowles joined the Australian Public Service in 2006 as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defence after a lengthy career in the Queensland and NSW public services. He transferred to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in 2010 and was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2012, after delivering highly successful energy efficiency policies and remediating the Home Insulation Program.

He was appointed Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in 2012, where he  oversaw the early stages of the significant transformation of the Department into the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Since coming to the role of Secretary of the Department of Health in 2014, Mr Bowles has played an integral role in changes across the sector including the significant recent reforms to government funding for public hospitals in Australia, which will lead to greater efficiency, safety and quality in our hospital system.

I thank Mr Bowles for his professionalism, dedication and significant contribution to the  public service and wish him all the very best for the future.

Mark Cormack, Deputy Secretary, will be acting Secretary pending the appointment of Mr Bowles’ successor.

EM RUSCIANO:

Welcome to the show Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Welcome Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER:

Em, it’s great to be with you and good to be with you too Harley.

HARLEY BREEN:

Thank you very much Malcolm.

EM RUSCIANO:

Thank you so much. Now I know there is a few things you want to talk about. I just wanted to gently touch on my nerves over North Korea knowing who we are and basically saying that we need to look after our own backyard. How are you responding to that Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well the North Korean regime continues to illegally and recklessly engage in very, very dangerous and provocative conduct, you know, threatening its neighbours, illegally building up a nuclear weapons capability and all nations – including Australia, but in particular China who has the greatest leverage over North Korea because it is its neighbor – all nations have got to unite in bringing pressure on North Korea – economic pressure to bring that regime to its senses, so that it stops threatening the peace of the region and the world.

EM RUSCIANO:

Obviously, yesterday we heard about the confirmation of the tragic death of seven-year old Sydney boy Julian Cadman and you’ve revealed that you have been working on a strategy for protecting crowded places from terrorism?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes. Look, firstly, I know I speak for all Australians in saying how heartbroken we all are to learn of Julian’s death. When he was first reported to be missing, many Australians prayed that he would be found safe and sound. All Australians, whatever their religious views, hoped that he would be found and returned safe to his parents. It wasn’t to be. So our heartfelt sympathies and condolences go to his family Andrew and Jom, and of course his mum Jom has been badly injured and we all wish her a swift recovery.

Every Australian, but particularly every parent, just grieves for that family. You can imagine the anguish of Andrew Cadman flying there to Barcelona, hoping, grabbing at whatever, you know, shred of hope he could that his little boy would be found safe.

HARLEY BREEN:

Absolutely. Hey Malcolm, speaking of –

PRIME MINISTER:

Now, just in terms of what we’re doing here, you asked me that.

HARLEY BREEN:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, ever since the Nice truck attack last year – and indeed before then – we’ve been aware of the ability of terrorists to use vehicles as means of killing people, of attacking people. But after the Nice attack, I asked our Commonwealth Coordinator General of Counter-Terrorism to pull together all the expertise around Australia and internationally and develop a national strategy for protecting crowded places. That’s been a very big piece of work. It’s involved the private sector, people who own malls, football stadiums, local government, state government.

That work was completed recently and we’ve published it on the weekend. You can read it, there’s a lot of material there, particularly for people who own venues so they can do checklists; where are the vulnerabilities? What can they do? Important advice to planners and architects, because of course protections against vehicle attacks are best built into spaces at the design stage. So it is all there, nationalsecurity.gov.au. I’d encourage your listeners to check it out.

HARLEY BREEN:

Sorry, Prime Minister, do you also have some provisions in there for money into mental health? Because obviously that’s a big part of what’s going on in the world. 

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, well we are spending a lot of money, as you know, we have a big mental health agenda. In fact, one of the things I often refer to is mental health as the ‘mental wealth of our nation’. We all have a vested interest –

EM RUSCIANO:

What about the mental health of the LGBTQI youth in this country at the moment, Prime Minister? Are you concerned about that? Because I don’t know if you’ve heard, overnight there’s been some fairly horrendous posters put around Melbourne. They say: ‘Stop the fags’ and they have statistics on there that are just made up. “92 per cent of children raised by gay parents are abused, 51 per cent have depression and 72 per cent are obese”.

HARLEY BREEN:

Ridiculous claims.

EM RUSCIANO:

Are you willing to denounce the people that made these posters? And you know – you spoke of parents earlier – and what do you say to the parents of kids who are gay? And I mean, this plebiscite that you’re allowing has emboldened people who are anti-homosexual to come forward in the light and say some pretty awful things and I am a mum and if my child was homosexual and hearing this rhetoric that is now openly available because of your Government – I meant, what do you say to these kids and these parents?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well Em, look, our society, the most successful multicultural society in the world is built on a foundation of mutual respect. So I deplore disrespectful, abusive language whether it is directed at young gay people or people of other religions or other races. So mutual respect and a respectful debate is what we should have in Australia.

EM RUSCIANO:

But that’s out the window Prime Minister, that’s not happening so what are you going to do to protect these vulnerable kids? Because your respectful debate, with all due respect, is in the toilet.

HARLEY BREEN:

Yeah, it’s already –

EM RUSCIANO:

So what are you doing to protect them?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, Em, we’re in a democracy, right? Now, you know people will often say, in any democratic debate, they’ll often say things that are hurtful and unfair and sometimes cruel but that is part of a debate. Now you cannot, the only way to stop people saying things that you find hurtful, is to shut down free speech.

EM RUSCIANO:

Do you find it hurtful what they’ve said? Do you find it hurtful?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes I do. What I would say to you Em, is if you have friends who are really distressed by this sort of language, stand up for them. Put your arms around them.

I want to say to you as your Prime Minister, that Lucy and I will be voting ‘yes’ in the postal vote. Lucy and I have been long supporters.

EM RUSCIANO:

Oh, wow.

HARLEY BREEN:

That’s great to hear Malcolm.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, we have been long supporters of same-sex marriage. I do not think that if a gay couple gets married, who are living together, gets married, that doesn’t threaten my marriage to Lucy, which is nearly 38 years of marriage.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

And I’ll tell you, the threats to marriage are not gay people getting married – threats to traditional marriage if you like – are not gay people getting married. The threats are desertion, cruelty, neglect, abandonment, indifference. Those are the threats.

This is a time when all of us in challenging times, when all of us need to support our friends and if you have friends, whether they are young people or old people, who feel threatened and a bit shook up by any debate like this, this is a time to put your arms around them and give them your love and support. 

But just to be very, very clear, I’ve been a long term supporter of allowing, legalizing same-sex marriage as it is called, marriage equality. I’ll be voting ‘yes’ as will Luce in the postal vote. I encourage everyone to participate and if you don’t agree with it, participate. Because you know, this is an exercise in democracy –

EM RUSCIANO:

But is it? Because it’s a non-binding vote. Like, is it democracy?

PRIME MINISTER:

Of course it is.

EM RUSCIANO:

Like, isn’t it just you guys not doing what you like?

PRIME MINISTER:

Of course it is, of course it’s democracy. If the postal vote is carried, the legalisation of same-sex marriage will sail through the Parliament, believe me.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yes. Okay.

PRIME MINISTER:

There are many people who are quite conscientiously opposed to same-sex marriage who’ve said they will vote ‘yes’.

EM RUSCIANO:

Well Malcolm it really, I have to say it’s made me, I’m glad you’re voting ‘yes’. I’m glad you’ve publically said that, you and Lucy, I know I’ve seen you at Mardis Gras.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I’ve said it many times, that’s hardly new.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yeah. But to hear it on our station, well, it is for us. Also a lot of people won’t have heard you say it. Because you’re traditionally on AM and it’s the first time you’ve been on our show and we have a huge listening audience.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I’ll come back, I’ll come back. I’ll get a regular spot.

EM RUSCIANO:

Please come back. Well the other thing that we just wanted to briefly touch on, the introducing the drug test for welfare.

PRIME MINISTER:

The drug trials.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yeah.

PRIME MINISTER:

You know, I talked about love a minute ago – this is being criticised by some people – this is all about love. Look, if you’ve got a friend who is on drugs, what do you want to do? You desperately want them to get off it. What we’re trialing here, first in Canterbury Bankstown, is a trial where people who are on welfare, who are on, you know, Newstart and Youth Allowance, will be tested for drugs and if they are found to be on drugs, then they will be put onto income management. It doesn’t mean they’ll get less welfare payments, it’s just that they’ll only be able to spend it on food and rent and you know, the necessities. They won’t have the same freedom to spend it on drugs as they otherwise would have.

HARLEY BREEN:

It does sound like you’re targetting the poor there, though.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yeah, doesn’t, isn’t it insinuating everyone on welfare is also on drugs?

PRIME MINISTER:

No it doesn’t, but the evidence shows that people on those welfare payments are about 2.4 times more likely to be on drugs that people in the general community.

EM RUSCIANO:

So Prime Minister, what about –

PRIME MINISTER:

It is a trial, Em, just hear me out. It is a trial. You’ve got to be prepared to experiment. I mean people,  there’s a lot of negativity around and people say governments aren’t getting things done. Then when you try something new, all of the knockers emerge. You’ve got to have a go. You’ve got to have some experiments.

We’ll see how it goes. I mean we’ve had great success with the cashless debit card which has been trialed in Ceduna and the east Kimberley. We’ll be taking that to some further sites. If we want to get people off welfare and into a job, if we want to get people off drugs and into a healthier lifestyle, we’ve got to be prepared to experiment. This is about love, it’s not about picking on people or you know, making assumptions about people on welfare. It is a practical way to help people.

I’d just say this to you; if you had a brother, or a partner or a child who was on drugs, what would you do? You would do everything in your power to get them off drugs. You would try and if something didn’t work, you’d try something else. So that’s what we’re doing. This is about love, this is about looking after our fellow Australians because we’ve all got a vested interest in every other Australian’s health and particularly their mental health.

EM RUSCIANO:

Well –

HARLEY BREEN:

Decriminalising drugs would be a step in the right direction. Because if you take the criminality out of it, you’re going to, you know, help out people’s lives in that fashion, that they’re not facing criminal charges for what is a mental illness issue.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, but you’re not seriously suggesting that we’d be better off if more people were on ice are you?

HARLEY BREEN:

No, of course I’m not.

EM RUSCIANO:

No, no.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well alright, why are we making ice – I just want to challenge this – why would making ice legal, be of benefit, would benefit anyone? Surely that would mean more people would use it? That would make the problem worse.

HARLEY BREEN:

I didn’t say make it legal I said take the criminality of it out of it and focus on the mental illness side of it.

PRIME MINISTER:

You take the criminality out of it, if you take the criminality out of it, you are in effect legalising it.

Look, I just want to say to you, we tackle this ice problem – and the drug problem generally, but ice is you know, the newest most rapidly growing threat – we tackle it at every level. I was just yesterday down at the Federal Police Headquarters in Sydney, congratulating the teams that busted those big international drug-smuggling cartels and of course the counter-terrorism teams.

HARLEY BREEN:

But that’s not the individual.

PRIME MINISTER:

Pardon?

HARLEY BREEN:

That’s not the individual who has an issue with mental illness, that’s the issue there. Whatever substance they’re choosing to use, is to do with their mental illness, their mental health.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, look there is no question; if you can get people who are on drugs, off drugs, their mental health will improve. Now, I understand the argument. You’re saying they’ve got a mental health problem and you know, they’re unhappy or depressed and so they turn to drugs.

The reality is these drugs are extraordinarily dangerous. They’re a massive threat to our community. They destroy families, they destroy people’s futures, they particularly destroy them at a young age. If we love these people then we must do everything we can – and we are – and we are prepared to trial new ideas and new approaches to get them off drugs. That is love, that’s love and compassion.

EM RUSCIANO:

Prime Minister you’re speaking of love, you’re speaking of love and compassion.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

EM RUSCIANO:

So I’m giving you a platform to any young members of the LGBTQI community – in fact, we’re talking to Magda Szubanski later and the CEO of beyondblue to help these young kids – as their Prime Minister, what do you want to say to the young kids listening now, who are feeling ostracised and feeling attacked by what’s happening with the plebiscite?

PRIME MINISTER:

Believe in yourself, believe in yourself. Be proud, be proud of yourself –

EM RUSCIANO:

Do you believe in them Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER:

Of course I do. Look, seriously, those people who seek to denigrate other Australians –

EM RUSCIANO:

But, isn’t that your Party?

PRIME MINISTER:

No, no, Em, really, don’t. You’ve got to be very fair about this –

EM RUSCIANO:

I don’t think you’re being fair. Do you think we should be debating equality, do you think equality is a debate? Is that something to be debated?

PRIME MINISTER:

Em, you cannot, simply because you don’t like the argument, simply because you believe in something –

EM RUSCIANO:

But is it an argument?

PRIME MINISTER:

Now Em, you’ve got to let me finish a sentence. Simply because you believe in marriage equality – and you believe in it and I support it too – doesn’t mean that people are not entitled to disagree with you. We have a democracy, this is a legitimate debate. Believe me, you know –

EM RUSCIANO:

Is it legitimate though? Prime Minister I don’t believe you believe it’s legitimate. I don’t believe in your heart you do. I don’t think saying someone isn’t equal to me because of who they love is a debate, or is a legitimate argument. I think it’s denying someone their rights.

PRIME MINISTER:

Em look, can I, let me give a tip. What you’re saying there is undermining the case for marriage equality. A key thing is, you cannot ask for respect from the ‘no’ case, from the ‘no’ case, if you’re not prepared to give respect to the ‘no’ case.

Now, the vast majority of people who do not agree with same-sex marriage, who have, you know, what you would regard perhaps as very conservative views, they are not homophobic. They don’t denigrate gay people. They have a view about marriage and they believe it should remain between a man and a woman. You know social change takes time. It takes debate and discussion.

HARLEY BREEN:

Why don’t you just let a free vote in Parliament then?

PRIME MINISTER:

What you should do and I urge you to do this, is don’t be distracted by a handful of extreme and unpleasant posters or, you know, flyers. Focus on the substance of the debate. If you give the people who are saying: “Vote no”, if you give them respect for their conservative view of marriage, then they will give respect to your view. I think the key to this is respect.

I mean, I know many people who take a conservative view of marriage and say: “It should be between a man and a woman,” who do not have a, you know, a homophobic bone in their body, full stop. One of the problems in debates like this is the tendency to, you know, caricature each side. The vast majority of people involved in this debate – and of course the vast majority of Australians, like 99.999 per cent or whatever – are very respectful of each other, understand there are differences of opinion and we resolved them amicably and respectfully.

Now there’s a postal vote, there will be a postal vote. Every Australian will get their say –

HARLEY BREEN:

But we elected you guys to debate this in Parliament. We elected our representatives to debate this is Parliament –

PRIME MINISTER:

You did –

HARLEY BREEN:

So I don’t know why you guys don’t just have a free vote, save this sort of hatemongering –

EM RUSCIANO:

Save $122 million.

PRIME MINISTER:

Harley, I can explain.

HARLEY BREEN:

Yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

The reason we’re having a postal vote, is because we went to the last election and our policy was that we would hold a national plebiscite on this issue.

HARLEY BREEN:

You’ve had a lot of policies you didn’t come through on though.

PRIME MINISTER:

Do you want to name a few others? No one’s accused me of breaking any promises. And give me credit for this, the Labor Party was in power for six years and did nothing on marriage equality.

EM RUSCIANO:

Yes but they’ve also come forward and admitted they were wrong and said they’ll vote for it, which you know governments do. You’re allowed to say we were wrong and we changed our mind.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well –

EM RUSCIANO:

Shorten has said if he gets in, it’s the first thing that gets done.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, the fact is the postal vote will be going out shortly. There’s obviously a challenge in the High Court but we’re confident it will be upheld there. When it’s held, when the postal vote is held I encourage everybody to vote. Whether you’re voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’, it’s important to participate. Lucy and I will be voting ‘yes’ and if a majority comes back and says ‘yes,’ consistent with our election promise, then we will facilitate a private members bill on same-sex marriage. And as I said, with, you know, protections for, you know, religious organisations and so forth, with all of those protections, it will sail through the Parliament.

EM RUSCIANO:

Well Prime Minister Turnbull thank you so much for coming on and having a robust debate with Harley and I. We appreciate your time-

PRIME MINISTER:

A respectful debate.

EM RUSCIANO:

It was! And you are welcome, as is Lucy – I’m a big fan of your wife – any time, any place-

PRIME MINISTER:

Good, well that makes two of us.

EM RUSCIANO:

[Laughter]

Thanks Mr Turnbull and let’s hope this marriage equality gets through and the right thing happens and yeah, we’ll talk soon hopefully.

PRIME MINISTER:

Terrific, thanks very much Em. Thanks Harley. Bye.

EM RUSCIANO:

Thanks Prime Minister.

[ENDS]

PRIME MINISTER: Well good afternoon. I’m joined today by Troy Grant the New South Wales Minister for Police, David Elliott, the New South Wales Minister for Counter-Terrorism, Andrew Colvin the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Fuller the New South Wales Police Commissioner and Tony Sheehan the Commonwealth Counter-Terrorism Coordinator.

After the Nice truck attack last year, I asked the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator for the Commonwealth who was then Greg Moriarty, to get together with all of the State and Territory Police agencies, with business and local Government and make sure that we had a comprehensive strategy for protecting crowded places. Particularly with respect to vehicle attacks, but not exclusively obviously. Offenders with guns or knives or bombs or chemical devices are also a threat, it’s a full range of threats. But what Nice demonstrated was the lethality of somebody using a truck in a crowded place.

Since then we’ve seen a number of attacks with vehicles. Of course tragically here in Australia in the Bourke Street Mall, in the UK on several occasions, most recently in the London Bridge attack where tragically young Australian’s were killed. Now, the last few days we’ve seen the shocking attack in Barcelona where once again Australians have been injured. As you know we are concerned about a young Australian boy who is unaccounted for. Again as I said yesterday, our prayers go out to all the victims but we pray for that little boy, that he will be found and restored alive to his parents. But it is a very tragic circumstance and one of great risk.

Now what we’ve done with this crowded places strategy, is we have set out a series of tools which owners and operators of venues, whether it is a council, a sporting arena, whether it is a state government site or a federal government site, we’re able to assess the vulnerability of the site, see how they can make it safer, know where to seek advice from police.

We’ve just walked through the Pitt Street Mall. As Commissioner Fuller was pointing out, you can see there the bollards at each end of that mall that make it safe from vehicle attack. So all of the people in that mall, that large open space are perfectly safe from vehicle attack. But that’s been done in a way that does not diminish the amenity for those pedestrians. We also of course recognise that the best mitigations are done at the design stage. Clearly you can’t proof every site 100 per cent, there are certainly there things that can be done to existing sites, but the most important thing is as you get new developments, new plans that security measures are put in place at that time.

So this is a comprehensive strategy. It’s one that has been done with cooperation between all the state and territory agencies and the commonwealth. It is available online at nationalsecurity.gov.au and it’s one that I believe is going to be very important as we work tirelessly to keep Australians safe. There is no place for ‘set and forget’.

Just before I hand over to the New South Wales Minister for Police, I just want to acknowledge again the outstanding work that is done by our police and intelligence agencies. As you know just a few weeks ago, the Federal Police and New South Wales Police and ASIO successfully disrupted, contained a terrorist plot to bring down an aeroplane. That was here in Sydney. Today you will have seen arrests of three persons in Melbourne, again the consequence of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team cooperation, who will be charged with terrorist acts against a Shiite mosque in Melbourne last year. So you can see that we are relentlessly, tirelessly working to keep Australians safe. There is no place for set and forget.

Every day we are improving the tools, whether they are legislative or technical that our agencies have to keep us safe. So I’ll ask Troy to say a few words and we’re happy to take questions.

NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTER FOR POLICE: Thank you Prime Minister and good afternoon everybody. The New South Wales Government thanks the Prime Minister for leading this body of work. An important part of our ability to continue to keep the community safe. Public safety is paramount and every city and every community in New South Wales and right cross Australia. The New South Wales Government, supported by our police, have had significant involvement in the construct of this information for crowded places. For this plan and what has been developed has been is a very important toolkit.

It is well thought through, it will be an evolutionary document, something that will continue to evolve, be well-informed by not only our law enforcement partners, but our intelligence community and the broader community as well. So for businesses, local Government, state and federal government, this is the greatest opportunity we have to work collectively, to utilise this tool kit, to make our communities as safe as possible against the ever emerging and evolving threats.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you mentioned [inaudible] since then, did the authorities make it clear [inaudible] barriers and bollards? Especially since all sorts of governments are already doing that, including Sydney and Melbourne?

PRIME MINISTER: Well this strategy has been a process that in the course of putting it together, has been informing local authorities. Of course, everyone has been aware for these threats. But it’s important to bring all that together. This is where the Federal Government can provide leadership and coordination. That’s why Tony Sheehan, there’s Tony, who is the Commonwealth Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, we can bring all of that expertise, all of that experience together to make sure that everybody is as well-informed and has the tools they need to keep us safe.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you said there was design put into this, where it’s morbid to see deliberate structures and you know what they are, to what extent will they blend into the environment, become part of the infrastructure? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well you can see very good examples of that and they’re set out in the Strategy document, where you can have, look you can obviously have bollards. We’re familiar with those. You can have seating. You might have noticed some of the seating in the Pitt Street Mall is positioned in a way that it would provide a barrier to a vehicle attempting to enter the mall. You can have works of art. You can have steps, you can have planter boxes. There’s a range of measures that can be built in at the design stage, it can be done very unobtrusively. Would you like to add to that Tony?

COUNTER-TERRORISM COORDINATOR: Thank you Prime Minister. There are many options available to owners and operators, in some cases we would see, as we do see around Sydney and in other cities around Australia, very visible bollards and other barriers. But one important thing that the Prime Minister has referenced is opportunities in the design phase as well. Where there are steps taken around security in the design phase in our crowded places, we can see very effective measures taken which can also be very attractive in the build of what we have in our crowded places.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister it would be fair to say, wouldn’t it, that this is about being proactive rather than reactive? Just being –

PRIME MINISTER: Yes, this work has been underway for a year. It’s been finalised recently, it’s been discussed at COAG. All of the jurisdictions, all of the states and territories are very familiar with it. So this is a part of our continuous program of optimising, improving the way we can keep Australians safe.

Our agencies are the best in the world. I’m so proud of our police, our security services, our intelligence services, our Defence Force. They’re the best in the world, but we recognise that the threat is constantly evolving. So what we have to do is make sure that we too are constantly improving and updating the measures we have to keep Australians safe.

JOURNALIST: I assume this will be a costly exercise, will government help businesses at all?

PRIME MINISTER: The responsibility goes to the owners of the particular venues and locations but of course most of the crowded places locations, or many of them, many of the biggest ones belong to governments, whether it’s state governments or local governments and in some cases federal government. But the important thing is that you’ve got tools in the documents there that people will be able to download now I’m sure, which enable an assessment of the risk of a particular site. That will then give the opportunity to then seek specific advice from police. Perhaps Mick do you want to say a little bit about how you would operate if somebody goes through that checklist and says: “Well I’ve got a venue that I think could be vulnerable,” how would you react to that? What’s the help you can give?

NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE COMMISSIONER: Thanks Prime Minister. I think that one of the important parts of the document is that it’s to stop ‘one size fits all’ in this, it’s not just a football stadium, it’s not just Pitt Street Mall. It’s there to highlight.  Crowded places could be just one day of the year, it could be just Anzac Day in your local town. At the same time it’s about not just asking for the community to be part of this, looking for suspicious bags, it’s about what can security and your people that work in these private assets do, to hopefully identify a threat at the earliest opportunity? So there’s a risk assessment process in there. There are potentially people out there now who have an asset that is a crowded place that don’t assess it in that way. So this document will give you a great deal of consistency in relation to private, local government, government departments, all risk-assessing these individual spaces in the same way.

Now the wonderful thing about the document is it gives different people different solutions to minimise opportunity. So I think in the past, law enforcement or government has asked the community and the media to be an important part of prevention in terrorism. But what we’re doing now is tying in local businesses, local government, to all be on the same page.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister for a long time now you’ve been advising people not to change their behavior.  [inaudible] their first response is fear. So, what are you telling them?

PRIME MINISTER: We will never be cowed, nor will be bow to terrorism. We will defeat the terrorists. But what we must do of course is take every step we can to protect Australians from the threat of terrorism and terrorist attacks. The changes that we’re talking about here and the strategy, making crowded places, public places more resilient to for example vehicle attacks, are ones that will enhance the amenity of those public spaces.

You know, I never heard anybody for example, say that they down like the Pitt Street Mall because of the bollards. You don’t notice them. They’re there, they’re very effective. It’s important always to recognise that we want to improve the amenity of our public spaces, it is part of our way of life. Getting together, going out, going out shopping. Look at the people we saw just a little while ago in the Pitt Street Mall, there was a family that had come down on the train from the Blue Mountains for a day in the city, a bit of shopping. That’s part of our great Australian way of life. That will always continue and what we’re doing is ensuring it’s secure and can be done safely.

Now there’s no guarantees obviously, but we’re doing everything we can, every day, to keep Australians safe.

JOURNALIST: Mr Colvin I’m wondering what the police input into it was, into what the criteria should be, what considerations, what specific requests you had for this?

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE COMMISSIONER: Thank you for that. A lot of this framework has been drawn upon from what we’ve learned overseas as well. So obviously this isn’t just reacting to what we’re seeing, this is about trying to get ahead of the game and be preventive in our focus. But we’re not in isolation around the world in thinking about these measures. So a large part of our input has been to make sure that the threat environment is well understood, to make sure that where there’s lessons that we can learn from our partners over seas, both our traditional partners and some of our non-traditional partners frankly, then we’re learning them. That’s been integrated into this strategy. So, while a lot of this is very local in nature, this is a layered approach. Of course local state and national level government s need to play a role.

JOURNALIST: How likely is it Commissioner and Prime Minister, that we’ll see a Barcelona-style attack here? Is there any indication that in our own community, jihadis are looking at these tactics that have been used overseas and talking about them or considering them?

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE COMMISSIONER: The national security level at the moment in Australia is ‘probable’. It’s ‘probable’ for a reason. I think we know that these attacks around the world resonate with those who want to seek to do us harm. They’re low sophistication attacks so we have to work on the basis that it is probable, that’s why the threat level is what it is.

PRIME MINISTER: Can I give you an example? Andrew can add to this if you wish, or Tony. There was a very serious terrorist plot disrupted just before Christmas in Melbourne and the plot involved an improvised explosive device to be detonated in the vicinity of Federation Square in Melbourne, just outside the cathedral there on Christmas Eve. The plan of these conspirators also involved driving vehicles, trying to get vehicles into Federation Square. So we have to work on the assumption that every vector of attack, every type of attack, is potentially under contemplation by those who seek to do us harm. That’s why intelligence is so important. You know you have to operate on so many levels, you’ve got to do everything you can to make crowded places safe, safer and more resilient to these type of attack. But equally intelligence is critical and so when armed with that intelligence, as our Joint Counter-Terrorism Team were here in Sydney a few weeks ago, they were able then to quickly identify the people that were suspected of being involved in this plot and contain them and disrupt the plot and then of course, as you know, there have been charges laid following.

JOURNALIST: You’ve got footy finals coming up, is there any, in light of this report, any changes going to be made to security at those events?

PRIME MINISTER: All of the venues are keenly aware of the security implications, but again, I just might ask the New South Wales Commissioner to add to that, or Troy if you want to speak about it?

NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE COMMISSIONER: In terms of New South Wales and most other states and territories of Australia, we know that big sporting events is certainly a crowded place, it’s probably something more consistent we’ve been used to in the past. We work with asset owners very closely. It’s more than just about bollards and spaces it’s about preparing your staff, it’s about having plans it’s about communicating to ensure that – heaven forbid – if there is an incident, then we are well-trained and well tested to work together with law enforcement, local security and those asset owners. But this document has been worked up with a number of private partners including some of the biggest stadiums, to ensure that it’s not just about a shopping centre, it’s not just about a mall. This document fit every type of crowded place that you can think of, which I think is key.

But we really have changed the way we do business in terms of sporting events now, for some years. We’ll continue to strengthen that through this document.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE COMMISSIONER: Absolutely, the document is publically available. Again, in the past we probably trained our security staff to look for a bag left on it’s own; it’s more complex than that. It’s about looking for a person that may be suspicious, maybe sweating profusely for the time of year, dressed inappropriately, carrying a bag that doesn’t fit within the environment. These are the type of things we need to train staff, not just security staff but all staff in assets to be aware of going forward.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]

NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE COMMISSIONER: Its about partnerships, isn’t it. We’ve often asked for the community to be a part of the solution. We’ll we’re asking business now, big business and small business also to be part of the solution.

JOURNALIST: You’re also looking at, I think, the trucking industry? I mean there are concerns about the security surrounding trucking.

PRIME MINISTER: Yes, there are and we are working with the trucking industry. Again, I don’t know if Tony or Andrew or Mick would like to talk about that further, but it’s to ensure that people who are not entitled to, not authorised, cannot get access to heavy vehicles because they can clearly be a very potent, lethal mode of attack. Although, you know, you have to recognise that a light van can be very lethal too, as we’ve seen in Barcelona. Indeed in the London Bridge attack, the terrorists had a light van which they loaded sandbags into the back of, to make it heavier so it would have greater and more lethal impact. But big trucks like the one used in Nice for example, they need to ensure that the wrong people are not getting behind the wheels of it. Do you want to add to that?

NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTER FOR POLICE: The New South Wales Government is acutely aware of that risk. A significant body of work is being undertaken with New South Wales Police, Organised Crime Squad as well as CT Command, with the Roads and Maritime Traffic Services and also the WestConnex Project for example. So we’re across that and our agencies are working very harmoniously together.

JOURNALIST: On another matter, yesterday we had an incident up at Chatswood, not terror related. Will that be an area you’d be considering putting bollards in?

NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTER FOR POLICE: This is a matter for every location to go through the risk assessment, go through the audit and then the key to this work is that the police and the experts are then available to you to help advise you. They’re now an additional resources. So one of the key things for me out of this plan is that the agencies, the law enforcement, the intelligence agencies, they understand the risk. Now businesses and operators of venues and local government can be more aware of the risk and the role they can play in mitigating that risk. But they have available to them, the expertise, across every state and territory, of their expert police to advise them as to what measures they will undertake.

JOURNALIST: Are there compliance issues with this? Is it mandatory, do you face fines for not conforming to building standards as you would see for any other building standard?

NEW SOUTH WALES MINISTER FOR POLICE: Those measures are governed by local environmental plans for each of the local government areas. They all have to be compliant with those planning requirements etc. for each jurisdiction.

PRIME MINISTER: Okay thank you all very much. 

Spending time together with family and friends in our sporting stadiums, at major events and around the civic spaces of our wonderful cities is a fundamental part of what makes Australia great.

Unfortunately we are not immune from the global conflicts in the Middle East and the instability around the world. My number one priority is to keep Australians safe.  

As we have seen from tragic events in Paris, London, Berlin and Barcelona, terrorists continue to target crowded places.

Our police and intelligence agencies recently disrupted a terrorist plot in Australia to bring down an aeroplane, further reinforcing the threat.

Last year, a review of lessons learned from terrorist incidents overseas, including the Nice truck attack, found that Australia already had robust arrangements in place to protect crowded places from terrorism.

But when it comes to security, there is no place for set and forget. We continue to reevaluate our arrangements and strengthen them based on changes to the threat environment.

Australia’s Strategy for Protecting Crowded Places from Terrorism has been developed in close partnership with the states and territories, local government, police and the private sector.

The Strategy will assist owners and operators to increase the safety, protection and resilience of crowded places across Australia.

This ‘how to guide’ will strengthen the existing cooperation between government and industry, providing clear guidance on where owners and operators can go for threat information and protective security guidance, and by providing an overview of effective protective security practices.

It includes practical guidance on protective security, information to help owners and operators better understand terrorist weapons and tactics, including ‘active armed offenders,’ improvised explosive devices, chemical weapons, and hostile vehicles.

It is vital that all those responsible for crowded places know where to go for information and advice on how to better protect their sites.   

We cannot be complacent about the threats we face but we will never let the terrorists undermine our way of life or compromise the freedoms we take for granted. Our Strategy will ensure Australians can continue to freely and safely go to the football, enjoy concerts and visit shopping centres.

At the same time, the Commonwealth Government has worked with the states and territories – through the Transport Security Committee – to develop a security awareness guide for truck operators and drivers.

The guide provides information on security measures that drivers and operators can undertake, indicators and warnings to help prevent a terrorist attack, and information on how to report suspicious or criminal behaviour to law enforcement.

The Strategy is now available to owners and operators of crowded places and members of the public on the National Security website – www.nationalsecurity.gov.au.