The Federal Government has published Australia’s Strategy for Protecting Crowded Places from Terrorism, which provides businesses with advice on protecting Australians and public spaces against terrorist attack.
The initiative will provide the owners and operators of crowded places with greater training on defending against attack and the strategy is designed to protect the lives of people working in, using, and visiting crowded places by making these places more resilient to terrorism.
The document says the crowded places are locations which are easily accessible by large numbers of people on a predictable basis.
It adds: “Crowded places include, but are not limited to, sports stadia, transport infrastructure, shopping centres, pubs, clubs, hotels, places of worship, tourist attractions, movie theatres, and civic spaces. Crowded places do not have to be buildings and can include open spaces such as parks and pedestrian malls.”
The strategy will see the establishment of the Crowded Places Partnership, which gives owners and operators access to better threat and protective security information.
In each state and territory, police have in place, or will be introducing, ‘Crowded Places Forums’, through which they can share information and advice with owners and operators.
The Government said: “By accessing this information, owners and operators will be in a better position to protect their crowded places against terrorism.
“Protective security measures can be used to deter, detect, delay, respond to, and recover from a terrorist attack. Implementing them can be a complex process which, if done incorrectly, can be costly and ineffective.
“This Strategy includes a suite of supplementary materials that will assist owners and operators to understand and implement protective security measures.”
Details on the strategy along with supplementary materials including a self-assessment tool and a security audit, can be found on the Australian Government’s National Security website.