PM leaves open option of inquiry into security services’ decision to keep him in dark over caravan terror plot

Anthony Albanese has left open the option of holding an inquiry into the security services’ decision not to tell him for 10 days about an explosives-laden caravan found in Sydney.

Anthony Albanese clashed with Karl Stefanovic over when was briefed about an explosive-laden caravan linked to an allegedanti-Semitic terror plot in Sydney. Picture: Today

Anthony Albanese has left open the option of holding an inquiry into the security services’ decision to keep him in the dark for 10 days about an explosives-laden caravan found in Sydney but does not want any inquiry to interfere with “ongoing investigations”.

On Thursday, speaking from flood-affected Townsville, the Prime Minister did not reject an inquiry when asked about the intelligence communications failure and the timing of his briefing on a national security issue.

The Australian on Thursday revealed that Mr Albanese and Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, were not informed of the existence of potentially Australia’s largest mass casualty event until he was becoming public and 10 days after NSW Premier Chris Minns was briefed.

Given concerns about whether the protocols and triggers for telling the Prime Minister and National Security Committee about a security incident are still appropriate the Government has considered a review of the process.

But, Mr Albanese, who still publicly refuses to say when he was briefed, has so far accepted the reasons provided by the Australian Federal Police for not telling the PM about a national security incident during a time of violent anti-Semitic behaviour.

When asked if he was “livid” about not being told and would he hold an inquiry Mr Albanese said it was big assumption to think he was “livid” the AFP but did not rule out an inquiry in the future.

Mr Albanese said his priority was to ensure the security services were “allowed to do their job” and find the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts and who was paying them.

“I find it, frankly, absurd that people think, for example, that resources should be diverted, that the AFP and intelligence agencies should be engaged in a political process rather than doing their job,” he said on Nine’s Today.

Mr Albanese said his job was “to back our authorities to do their job. And that’s what I do’.

With security experts and the Coalition raising concerns over Labor’s dismantling of the Department of Home Affairs and deficiencies in Australia’s national security architecture, Mr Albanese has swung in behind the AFP and ASIO.