Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has bristled at questions about when he was briefed about the caravan packed with powerful explosives, saying he does not go into operational matters.
NSW Police kept the domestic terrorism plot from the public despite being discovered in Dural 10 days earlier, which Albanese said was necessary.
“The facts have been put out there. Now, I receive regular briefings from our national security agencies and from the Australian Federal Police. I’ve certainly discussed the issue with the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns; New South Wales Police have people in custody,” Albanese told ABC Sydney.
“I don’t go into operational details. The important things here are two things. One is that the priority must be keeping Australians safe. And in this case, this incident has been discovered, people have been held to account about ongoing investigations. And that’s the second thing that needs to happen, is that the job of politicians is to support our security agencies.”
Minns has said the call to keep the discovery of the caravan secret was the “right decision”, saying he won’t commit to issuing a media release once a counter-terrorism investigation commences.
“The primary reason for that is not to be covert or hide it from the public. It’s so that the criminals don’t know what the NSW Police are doing in terms of their inquiries,” he said.
“We will release as much information to the public as soon as possible, unless it compromises the police inquiry.”
You can read rolling coverage of the Dural caravan discovery here.
