Months before the deadly 2022 attacks, the national security committee of cabinet was told there was no evidence that Australians were being targeted by terror organisations.
as more serious for Australia’s national security than the 9/11 attacks, and raced to boost funding for intelligence agencies, former minister Amanda Vanstone says.
“There had to be a greater focus on watching who’s coming in, and for law enforcement agencies and security agencies, to get everything we could give them. Because that’s your first job: to protect Australians.”Less than 48 hours after the bombings in the Kuta tourist district, Prime Minister Howard made an oral report to ministers about the scale of the crisis. Mr Howard said the then Australian ambassador to Indonesia, Ric Smith, had taken charge of operations on the ground in Bali.
Months earlier, one document shows cabinet’s national security committee was told there was “no evidence” Australians were being targeted by terror organisations. The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation briefed senior ministers that overseas networks were focused elsewhere. The papers show cabinet considered a proposal to outlaw any use of embryos collected for IVF in scientific research. Proposed by Kevin Andrews,, the ban would have blocked any additional use of embryos which would otherwise have been destroyed.
“Special purpose rubbish it may be,” she said at the Archives event. “But not one zygote will jump out, grow to be a teenager walking around, come up to you Pitt Street, shake your hand and say “Prime Minister, I climbed out of the rubbish tip and here I am.”
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