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The second block of hearings of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is underway in Sydney. The focus is turning to intelligence and security and is expected to probe what was known in the months and years leading up to the Bondi terror attack, and security arrangements on the day.

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00:02First up we'll be hearing from the ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, particularly around the intelligence
00:09gathering in the lead up to the Bondi terror attack.
00:13The interim report flagged concerns or questions around the resourcing.
00:20The share of intelligence funding had found that there had been a significant decline
00:24of that money that had gone towards counter-terrorism since 2020.
00:28So we can expect questions around that.
00:31And also what intelligence authorities knew about the gunmen.
00:36Given that they had been on the radar but had slipped off the radar, they first came
00:41to the attention of ASIO back in 2019.
00:44So we can expect questions around that.
00:46And later in the day we'll be hearing from Stephen Nutt, the Assistant Commissioner, one
00:51of the Assistant Commissioners at the Australian Federal Police, as well as Leanne McCusker
00:55from New South Wales Police.
00:56She's the head of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Tactics Command.
01:00So we're going to be hearing from those two different levels of policing around the different
01:05security arrangements, the information sharing and the circumstances surrounding the Bondi
01:11attack.
01:11What resources were made available on the day?
01:14And then at the end of today we'll be hearing from two representatives of the Community Security
01:20Group.
01:20That's a Jewish volunteer led organisation that provides security for synagogues, Jewish events,
01:27schools.
01:28So we're going to be hearing a lot more about what was requested of police on the day of
01:33the Bondi terror attack.
01:34And Gavin, what are we expecting to hear over the next few weeks?
01:37It will really build upon what was the focus of the interim report around counter-terrorism
01:45resourcing, the use of intelligence resources towards particularly anti-Semitism and counter-terrorism,
01:54and also around information sharing between federal and state authorities.
02:00We saw in the interim report that it was revealed that the New South Wales police presence was
02:07a roving one at this event in Bondi and that they were required not to be there for the entirety
02:13of the event, and that at any given time there were between three and four police officers
02:18there.
02:19That's despite the fact that the Community Security Group had warned in the days and weeks
02:24leading up to it that there was a likely possibility of a terror attack.
02:28So we're going to be hearing a lot more about that.
02:30It will then get into closed sessions as this block of hearings gets on, because much of this
02:37is highly sensitive with regards to national security.
02:40So we expect this week will be mostly public hearings, but it will start to move into closed
02:46sessions, but certainly a shift from the first block of hearings, which was really focusing
02:50on lived experiences around anti-Semitism.
02:53And this is now really getting to the nitty gritty around counter-terrorism, policing and
02:58intelligence sharing.
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