Berejiklian braced for Lindt cafe siege report

The NSW government is bracing for the release of the Coroner’s ­report today into the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will address parliament after the release of the report.

The NSW government is bracing for the release of the Coroner’s ­report today into the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney’s CBD that is ­expected to be highly critical of the operational response by police and could press for rethinking the definition of terrorism.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will address parliament after the release by Michael Barnes, who could recommend an overhaul of police practices to minimise the possibility of harm to hostages in any future situation.

After 16 hours, the siege ended in the early hours of December 16, 2014, with the deaths of two of the hostages and their captor.

Cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, was murdered in an execution- style killing by hostage-taker Man Haron Monis, and barrister and mother of three Katrina Dawson, 38, was killed by tactical police in crossfire when they raided the building after hearing shots. Police killed the armed Monis immediately after they entered the cafe.

While Ms Berejiklian is likely to delay a detailed response to the findings, an early tests for her government will be how it reacts to possible criticisms of top-ranking police officers involved in handling the crisis and who still hold senior positions.

The coroner accepted submissions from a barrister acting for NSW police that the names of many frontline police during the siege, plus a psychiatrist who advised on how to deal with hostage-taker Monis, should be suppressed.

However, among the names of top police not suppressed who gave evidence were former NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione, new commissioner Mick Fuller and deputy commissioner Catherine Burn.

Mr Fuller, promoted to the commissioner’s position last month by Ms Berejiklian, came under criticism during hearings for going home early while the siege was still underway.

Ms Burn, who was head of counter-terrorism operations at the time, received similar criticism. She also said at media conferences during the siege that police were in contact with the hostage-taker when it appears they may not have been.

The political risk for the Berejiklian government is that criticism of Mr Fuller’s handling of the siege could be revived, raising questions as to why the government may have pre-­empted the report by promoting him and expressing confidence in his ability to lead the nation’s largest police force.

The biggest political challenge for the NSW government is likely to be how it deals with any recommendation from Mr Barnes to change the policy of police to wait until someone is killed before mounting an all-out assault.

Mr Barnes is believed to have taken a keen interest in the ­evidence of Greg Barton, a Melbourne University expert on ­Islamic terrorism, who accepts that Monis most likely had serious mental health problems seen in domestic violence cases but that this fact did not necessarily require his behaviour to be defined differently to the actions of a terrorist.