00:01We've learned that official figures provided to the Royal Commission investigating the
00:06Bondi attack show that counter-terrorism intelligence got its lowest share of funding and resources
00:13at Australia's intelligence agencies including spy organisation ASIO before the Bondi attack
00:20and that was its lowest share since the 9-11 attacks in 2001 when the war on terror essentially
00:28began. Now these figures are a closely held national security secret, they're classified,
00:35but we understand they show that the proportion of funding for counter-terrorism at ASIO was
00:42around similar levels to before the September 11 attacks when counter-terrorism received about
00:4930-40% of the resourcing share. Now why is this important? Because ASIO only has limited
00:57resources to devote to its operations, to gather intelligence, to spy on potential terrorists,
01:04to assess whether they pose a terrorism threat and we've heard from senior officers with recent
01:11experience from ASIO of a sharp degradation in the counter-terrorism capability at ASIO in the years
01:19leading up to the Bondi attack. Now these were the years when the Bondi gunmen who'd previously been on
01:25ASIO's radar slipped off the radar, managed to obtain guns, travel overseas without raising red flags.
01:33Now in 2024 ASIO lifted the terrorism threat level after having reduced it years earlier and ASIO had
01:43prioritised instead threats from foreign states, very serious threats. We understand that after the 2024
01:52raising of the terror threat level ASIO did temporarily increase its funding in connection with that for
02:00counter-terrorism. But a source close to the Royal Commission inquiry has told us that by the time of
02:07the Bondi attack that counter-terrorism resourcing had fallen back down. Now a security official I spoke with
02:15said that's not entirely fair because at that time in 2025 there was a historic, very significant investigation
02:25where huge resources were poured into investigating anti-Semitic arson attacks which were found to have been
02:33carried out by Iran, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Now that funding came out of the organisation's
02:42counter espionage and interference budget, not terrorism, but the reality is that investigation didn't look
02:50at supporters of Islamic State which is of course the group that inspired the Bondi terrorist attack.
02:57We expect that ASIO's chief Mike Burgess will appear next week at both public hearings and closed hearings
03:07because some of this is highly classified. But the commission is investigating whether ASIO responded
03:14adequately to its own assessments that a terrorist attack was probable and its warnings of anti-Semitic
03:21murders. We're expecting Mike Burgess to face questions about this resourcing issue which we know the
03:28commission is taking very seriously as well as potential intelligence gaps and even the question of
03:34intelligence failures around the Bondi attack.
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