00:00Joel Couchy's attack at the Bondi Junction Westfield in February last year claimed six lives.
00:07And today, on the final day of submissions at this inquest, the attack was described by Westfield's operator Centre Group
00:14as unprecedented in both its scale and its violence.
00:18But Sue Chrysanthou SC, who's a barrister representing three of the victims' families, said unprecedented does not mean unpredictable.
00:27She told the court today that this was a highly predictable scenario, that in a public place where there are many, many people,
00:34somebody may resort to violence using a weapon.
00:37And Sue Chrysanthou pointed to previous examples that we've seen, like the Lindt Café siege in Sydney.
00:43She told the court today that where a company invites masses of people onto its premises for its own commercial benefit,
00:50it needs to take the time and spend the money on keeping people safe.
00:55Sue Chrysanthou told the coroner today that, regrettably, Centre Group and the security contractor GLAAD did not do so.
01:02Now, Centre Group refutes that.
01:04It's accepted that there were some missteps in this scenario, particularly in the initial stages of its response.
01:10For example, sounding an alert, a warning tone far too late.
01:15But its lawyer told the court today that it had industry-leading standards and it had also made significant changes since this attack.
01:24For example, introducing stab-proof vests for security staff.
01:28The court was also told that the coroner is being urged not to make a finding that a CCTV operator was incompetent,
01:37following revelations that that CCTV operator was absent from the control room at the very moment this violence began back in February last year.
01:46Centre Group's lawyer told the coroner today that
01:49a finding like that of incompetence would be placing too much weight on the advantages of hindsight.
01:55So, while there appears to be a large collection of agreement in terms of the topics and the potential recommendations here,
02:02there are certainly narrow areas where the parties involved in this inquest disagree quite fiercely.
02:08Tell us, are the families still pushing for Joel Couchy's former psychiatrist to be referred to a regulator?
02:17Was that talked about today?
02:20They are.
02:21Well, Joel Couchy was treated by a psychiatrist in Queensland by the name of Dr. Andrea Boris-Levac.
02:27Now, he was under her care between 2012 and 2020 in Queensland before he moved to New South Wales
02:34where he was experiencing homelessness and he was also experiencing chronic schizophrenia for which he was unmedicated.
02:42Now, Dr. Boris-Levac has been the subject of a fair bit of criticism at this inquest
02:47because when she gave evidence earlier this year, she claimed that he was not psychotic on the day of the attack
02:54and she quickly resiled from that opinion.
02:57But she has attracted criticism for giving that conjecture in the first place.
03:02Now, today, her lawyer, Mark Lynch, told the court that she was not appearing at this inquest as an expert
03:11and it was grossly unfair to ask her to weigh in to that question of his mental state at the time.
03:17Mr. Lynch also told the court that it would not be warranted to refer Dr. Boris-Levac to a regulator in Queensland.
03:25That's been suggested by some of the victims' families.
03:29But he disagreed with that and he said that, for the most part,
03:32she provided largely acceptable and exemplary care to Joel Couchy,
03:39although she has made concessions that, towards the end of the care that she provided,
03:44her handover to her GP had some flaws.
03:47So she has made some concessions, but he really came out strongly quite today to defend that psychiatrist Lorna.
03:53Thank you very much.
03:55Thank you very much, Paul, and I look forward to hearing about this.
03:56And I hope you will see the video again.
03:58Thank you for listening.
04:01I'm my name is Alan Assistant.
04:08And my name is Alan Assistant.
04:09I'm the doctor and my name is Alan Petase-Kiss.
04:12Thank you, I am great to be here to hear me.
04:13And I'm part of that one of my name.
04:14There is my name is to tellerme and talk about psychiatrist Lorna.
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