Security and Your Community
The Australian Government is doing all it can to prevent a terrorist attack in Australia.
See the What Australia is doing page to find out more.
What I can do—find out what you can do to help keep Australia safe from terrorism and prepare for and respond to an emergency.
Frequently asked questions—get the answers to some general, frequently asked questions about our national security.
The Mass Gatherings Advisory Group (MGAG – a sub-set of the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee – ANZCTC) recently issued guidelines for planning for and dealing with improvised explosive device (IED) warnings or incidents. MGAG previously developed and released similar guidelines relating to the active shooter (also now known as active armed offender re: edged weapon threats, etc) which can be seen here.
The IED guidelines have been developed as this threat type is considered significant and relevant in line with the national security threat level which is currently rated at probable. The WA Police hosted an information session on 7 June, through their Mass Gathering Security Collective at Fiona Stanley Hospital to provide an overview of the IED guidelines and associated information that may assist a range of facility and infrastructure operators to conduct security risk assessments.
It is recommended that these national level guidelines be considered as a part of wider risk management planning for events, facility operation, service delivery, etc as relevant. The WA Police Protective Security Unit and Australian Federal Police advised today that while they currently have no precise intell’ that points to the vulnerability of a specific event or venue type that the current national security threat level, the nature of more recent critical incidents and other indicators point to the following factors in a target as being potentially more at risk:
a) An event or site that is highly symbolic.
b) An incident at a location that will generate high numbers of casualties.
c) Something somewhere that will gain high levels of media attention and generate community fear.
d) A site or event at which small groups or a lone operator can easily gain access.
The IED theme is a current focus for law enforcement agencies and security risk management planning for publicly accessed sites and services as this method of attack can be more ‘effective’ in the eyes of a hostile group or individual on a ‘risk versus reward’ basis. The new IED guidelines can link to or be useful in the review of ‘bomb threat’ and other critical risk plans and processes that many sites or events will already have in place.
The briefing was organised by the WAPOL Protective Security Unit who have advised that they can assist with:
a) More in depth briefings for specific industry types or large scale facility operators.
b) Security risk liaison and potentially site visits as relevant.
c) Providing advice on the current threat context for facility, event and service providers.
Click the links below to find out more:
