Prime Minister describes terror attack in Melbourne as shocking and cowardly
UPDATE: Malcolm Turnbull will discuss changing laws with state leaders on Friday in the wake of the deadly Melbourne terror attack to prevent dangerous criminals being released from prison early.
NSW
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MALCOLM Turnbull will ask the states to ban parole for violent offenders when he meets with the premiers on Friday.
Gunman Yacqub Khayre was on parole when he shot dead a clerk in a Melbourne apartment block and was later killed in a shootout with police last night.
Khayre had served jail time over a violent burglary in 2012 and had been on parole for arson since November.
He spent 16 months on remand before being acquitted of the 2009 Holsworthy army barracks terror plot in Sydney.
Mr Turnbull, who will lead the Council of Australian Governments in Hobart on Friday, said the issue of parole was a high priority.
“There have been too many cases of people on parole committing violent offences of this kind,” Mr Turnbull said today.
He questioned why Khayre was released on parole, given his extensive criminal history and links with terror.
“I have raised these today with the Victorian premier, whom I called last night and I called again this morning,” Mr Turnbull said.
“How was this man on parole? He had a long record of violence. A very long record of violence. He had been charged with a terrorist offence some years ago and had been acquitted.”
The issue was clear-cut for Justice Minister Michael Keenan.
“Violent offenders should not be on parole and the prime minister will be raising this important issue with premiers on Friday,” Mr Keenan said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the gunman had not only been eligible for parole and received it, but had complied with all its terms and conditions, including drug testing and a curfew.
“We’ll look at that very closely, of course, and if there are any changes in any element of this act - which we’re considering as an act of terror - then we stand ready to make them,” Mr Andrews said of changes to parole.
He noted Khayre had been acquitted of the NSW charges.
A study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics published in 2014 found seven per cent of violent offenders on parole committed a further violence offence, and the likelihood of reoffending significantly dropped where the quality and intensity of supervision is improved.
GUNMAN TAMPERED WITH GPS
LONG-TIME criminal Khayre tampered with his GPS ankle bracelet during a terror attack that killed an innocent man and wounded three police officers.
Police are investigating whether Khayre deliberately lured them into a deadly ambush after it was revealed he had booked a female escort, whom he took hostage, and sparked an alert on his tracker.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton says it is a “possibility” the 29-year-old wanted to lure police into a deadly shootout.
“(There was) certainly a booking made to see an escort at the premises. He’s then turned up at the premises with a firearm,” Mr Ashton said.
“That’s all been weighed into the calculations, but we haven’t found anything like a note or any comment around that.”
Officers had earlier found the body of a 36-year-old Chinese-born Australian clerk in the foyer.
“He appears to (have been) in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr Ashton said.
Corrections Victoria confirmed Khayre’s GPS tracker was tampered with while the siege was under way.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack online, but Mr Ashton downplayed their statement.
“We’re aware of (online) them having claimed responsibility, but then they always tend to jump up and claim responsibility every time something happens,” he said.
“But he’s also made statements last night around (rival organisation) al-Qaeda.”
On Monday afternoon, the Seven Network took a phone call in its Melbourne newsroom from a woman who said she was in a hostage situation before man came on the line saying: “This is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda.”
Victoria Police is treating the attack as a terrorist incident and photos show an evidence bag containing a “hardcover book with Arabic writing” was taken from the apartment.
Police are searching Khayre’s mother’s home in Roxburgh Park, while the bomb squad is searching the Buckingham Serviced Apartments on Bay St in Brighton.
Khayre was shot dead as he stormed out of the building and fired on police.
Two male Special Operations Group officers, including one with wounds to his face and neck, were taken to hospital while a third was treated at the scene.
A 36-year-old woman from Ripponlea sustained minor injuries after she was held hostage in the ground floor apartment.
Khayre once spent 16 months on remand before being acquitted of a 2009 plot to
attack the Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney.
He was jailed in 2012 over a violent home invasion and released six months ago.
Mr Ashton said Khayre had been on parole since being released from prison in November and “there was nothing wrong with his parole until yesterday”.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews promised to look at every part of the parole system but said it had already worked to keep Khayre in jail longer than his minimum sentence.
“(Since his release) he’s been compliant, including drug tests, attending appointments and observing a curfew,” Mr Andrews said.
KHAYRE’S LINK TO ‘EVIL’ HOLSWORTHY PLOT
An audacious plot by Islamic extremists for a massive terrorist suicide attack at the Holsworthy Barracks was foiled by an extensive surveillance operation by police in 2009.
Investigators at the time believed that had the plot to shoot as many people as possible at one of Australia’s biggest army bases succeeded it would have been the worst-ever terrorist attack on home soil.
They managed to thwart the deadly plan for a shooting rampage at the barracks in Sydney’s southwest, where thousands of army troops and a major anti-terrorist unit was based, after a lengthy surveillance campaign led to multiple arrests after raids in Melbourne in August 2009.
Yacqub Khayre was one of five men who stood trial in 2010 over the plot but he and one of his co-accused, Abdirahman Ahmed, were acquitted by the Victorian Supreme Court.
Three other men — Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, Saney Edow Aweys, and Nayef El Sayed — were found guilty of plotting the killing spree as a form of payback for Australia’s role in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as the jailing of other Islamic terrorists.
The trio planned to arm themselves with high-powered machine guns and kill as many as possible at the Holsworthy Barracks and to keep shooting until they either ran out of ammunition or were stopped or killed.
The 2nd Commando Regiment was one of three main units based at the huge army barracks, which featured a world-leading unit dedicated to training counter-terrorism forces.
The barracks, stretching from Liverpool to Campbelltown and across to Heathcote, also borders the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
The plot was uncovered during a joint anti-terrorism operation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police, NSW Police and the NSW Crime Commission.
Investigators carried out a series of raids on properties in Melbourne in August 2009 in relation to the plot by a suspected terrorist cell of Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese backgrounds.
The group had spent much of 2009 planning the attack after being inspired by the Somalia-based terrorist movement Al-Shabaab, which had connections with Al-Qaeda.
During the trial of the five men in Victoria, a jury heard the men sought permission from Islamist clerics in Somalia to carry out a “fatwa” in Australia.
Police secretly recorded several phone calls between the accused men, including one during which Fattal and El Sayed discussed how they believed Australians were the enemy because they oppressed Muslims.
Fattal was also filmed by security footage walking around the boundary of the Holsworthy base and spoke of being awarded paradise if he killed Australian soldiers.
As she handed down maximum 18-year jail terms in late 2011, Supreme Court Justice Betty King described the terrorist plot as “evil” and said the three men should hang their heads in shame.
The trio lost an appeal against their conviction and jail terms in 2013.
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