Attorney-General to speak at Counter Terrorism Summit

Oct. 15, 2008 - PRLog -- Attorney-General Robert McClelland will be a keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual Counter Terrorism Summit in Melbourne on 28-29 October.

Mr McClelland will speak on the Federal Government’s national security agenda and counter terrorism laws.

The conference will cover a range of issues from a global risk assessment to emergency management, and feature international and Australia security leaders.

Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Dein, Head of Counter-Terrorism and Special Tactics Command with the NSW Police, will speak on ‘interoperability’ – joint arrangements with other agencies.

One of these is the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, formed by the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission joining forces, he says in an interview.

Assistant Commissioner Dein says that the national security level, set by the Commonwealth Government in consultation with other jurisdictions, is at ‘medium’.

“That level indicates to us that a terrorist attack may well occur and that’s based on a lot of background information, intelligence and what is known to the security and law enforcement agencies in Australia.”

He says the mere fact that Australia has not had a terrorist attack in Australia, at least not in modern times is probably not a good enough reason in itself to start to relax.

Other speakers include Professor Andrew Mack, Director, Human Security Research Report Project, Simon Fraser University Canada; Detective Superintendent John Prunty QPM, Counter Terrorism & Extremism Liaison Officer, British High Commission; and Mike McAllister, Critical Infrastructure Protection Officer, Office of Commonwealth Preparedness, Virginia, U.S.

http://www.informa.com.au/counterterrorism/pr

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews please contact:
Nigel Dique - Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; nigel.dique@informa.com.au

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