Why experts don’t want to over-egg security after attack on Scott Morrison
A former sniper and personal protection specialist has called for greater punishment from the courts to discourage egging attacks on politicians instead of moving towards US-style security cordons to protect our leaders.
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Australia has a history of eggs thrown at the nation’s leaders dating back more than a century, but our laid back culture has ensured public meet and greets have continued.
Now though, the electorate’s animosity toward politicians and our ever-increasing exposure to international events and threats begs the question whether such hands-on politics can continue.
Scott Morrison may have been the latest victim in chaotic scenes at a meeting of the Country Women’s Association yesterday, but as far back as 1917 there was an egg-throwing assault on Prime Minister Billy Hughes in Queensland by an anticonscription protester.
The incident so outraged the leader that he created a Commonwealth Police force tasked with protecting national leaders. It would ultimately evolve into the current Australian Federal Police.
Hughes was in Warwick, south of Toowoomba in Queensland, in November of that year campaigning for a national plebiscite on conscription to boost Australian troop numbers and was midway through his passionate address when an egg was pegged at his head.
It took his hat off and an enraged Hughes ordered his Queensland police sergeant to arrest the thrower, a Paddy Brosnan, but the officer refused since he could only operate on Queensland law and the throw was “a Commonwealth matter”.
Sydney University professor of Australian politics Rodney Smith said there had been a history of assaults on prime ministers since then, notably with eggs, including incidents involving John Hewson and Julia Gillard.
More dangerous assaults included the 1966 shooting assassination attempt on Labor leader Arthur Calwell. Only a car window saved him from more serious injury.
But Professor Smith said he doubted we would ever move to a US-style security cordon around our leaders, particularly during election campaigns.
“That (Calwell assassination attempt) didn’t change the approach then and I think probably would not change the approach now,” Prof Smith said.
“It is because we have this expectation that generally our politicians will be part and parcel of the community to some extent and approachable and there is not this difference between them and us. The analysis of the risk are generally people will respect that, (there may be) verbal abuse and maybe gets egged from time to time, but the extent of the threat doesn’t usually extend beyond that.
“There was a famous moment in the 1993 election when someone threw an egg at John Hewson when he was speaking on the podium and he caught it and held it up, and they said it was a ‘classic catch’ referring to the cricket … the interactions between the Australian public and politicians generally speaking occur within boundaries, respect and freedom for both sides to meet the people. This incident (involving Scott Morrison on Wednesday) won’t change that.”
Highly-experienced former NSW Police Detective Sergeant Paul Navin worked for 20 years on counter terrorism teams, including as a senior sniper and in close personal protection for the Special Protection Group overseeing politicians and overseas VIPs, including presidents and royals. He said Australia did not want to go the way of the US.
“Hopefully this egging incident hasn’t pushed us down that road, it’s all about consequence and management in the end. The consequences on face value appear to be minimal, but it’s the underlying consequences and domino effect that escalates in close personal protection terms and more importantly looks at ongoing security threats that now become evident. It’s an egg at the moment, but next week it could be a deliberate act that uses more than an egg and that’s the problem.”
He said there would now be a review.
“If I am the boss of that security detail I would be seriously looking at firstly why did it happen, why was this person able to get so close, what was my plan of my team in place to stop this happening. Pardon the term, but I think some people will get their arse kicked for allowing it to happen … we have to learn from these mistakes and they will look how to ensure it doesn’t happen in future and boundaries around the PM or senior politicians.”
He said these type of incidents were happening regularly now and there had to be greater punishments in place as a disincentive.
“It’s no good having this massive security overlay in place and they prevent something like this happening — which is a great thing and we are paid to do — if they are arrested and put before the courts, we need some deterrent factor to be handed down by the courts otherwise it will keep happening.”
Craig Sheridan, retired NSW police commander of the State Planning Unit, Major Events & Incidents Group looking at public order and emergency management, said the need for a leader to engage the public was critical.
He said assessments would have been made but there would always be some risk.
“That’s the residual risk you live with, some risk, some residual risk,” the now private major events security consultant said.
“The Prime Minister has an AFP Close Personal Protection (CPP) team who are highly trained, professional and elite at what they do. They assess each event the Prime Minster attends for risk and threat and are trained to respond quickly in the event of an incident. The need for the Prime Minister on the campaign trail to engage the community is paramount and facilitated by his close personal protection teams. The CWA event would have been assessed as low risk, but there is always the residual risk possibility of a breach in security.”
He added: “That’s the residual risk you live with, some risk.”
Originally published as Why experts don’t want to over-egg security after attack on Scott Morrison
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