Dr Levi West: national security expert and Australian National University research fellow on the terror attack at Bondi Beach

Details are emerging about the gunmen behind last night's deadly attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

15 people were killed and dozens more were injured after the shooters opened fire into a crowd of people celebrating the first day of Hanukkah.

National security expert and Australian National University research fellow Dr Levi West says the father mustn't have raised any alarm bells when he applied for a gun license. 

"Associations that your son has with people is not necessarily sufficient to rule you out of measures. The New South Wales state Government is talking about tightening what is some of the toughest gun laws in the world."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To Bondo Beach this terror attack, and the suspects a
twenty four year old his names Navid Arkram. He's in
custody right now. His dad, who's fifty, was shot dead
at the scene.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
The son is an Australian born citizen. The father arrived
in nineteen ninety eight on a student visa, transferred in
two thousand and one to a partner visa, and after
each trip overseas since then, has been on resident return visas.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
So we're learning more about these two now. Reportedly the
dad originally came from Pakistan. Police won't confirm that yet.
Doctor Levi West is a terrorism research fellow at the
Australian National University. With me, good evening, Good evening, Aden,
very well, thank you. How are you doing. How's Australia doing.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Ah?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look, I think this is rattled the country in a
quite significant and consequential kind of way. I don't think
anyone was expecting something of this kind of scale and
gravity to take place, particularly an iconic location like Bondo Beach.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
We're hearing that they've both pledged allegiance to ISIS. Do
we know that for sure yet?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
There's some indicators in the public domain suggesting that certainly
the younger of the father and son duo had previously
been investigated for their tie for their connection to Islamic
state cells within Australia. There is talk in the public
domain that they found Islamic state flags and the vehicle.
None of this has been formally confirmed as official information

(01:32):
by the government. I would expect that sometime over the
next day or two if if those claims are true,
then they'll be confirmed by the relevant authorities.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Doctor Levy. The thing that's jumping out at me, and
I'm sure it is for others as well. As You've
got the son who allegedly head links to an ISIS guy,
and then you've got the dad and they're both living
in the same house and the dad's got sex legal firearms.
How does that work?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
So I think it's important in the aftermath of any
terrorist attack to remember that the assessments for things, for instance,
the father's gun license, he met the requirements to pass
the application for a gun license because he hadn't committed
a terrorist attack. Yet when we look back after an incident,
it's easy for us to ask questions about, well, why
didn't we do something about this person. It's because they

(02:18):
hadn't done anything at that point, and that associations with
people and associations that your son has with people who's
not necessarily sufficient to rule you out of measures. The
new stufile of state government is talking fairly transparently at
the moment about tightening what is, by any measure, some
of the toughest gun laws in the world. You know,

(02:41):
none of these things are fool proof. I think that's
important thing to keep in mind that just because someone
has gotten through the system doesn't mean that the system
is comprehensively flawed. It means that there's a small gap
there that someone's managed to slip through.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Anti Semitism, extremist Islamic ideologies, all these things. Are they
more prevalent in Australia than they are in other places?
Or is it just because we're at next door to
you that you know, we notice it more.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I don't think it is. If you track, for instance,
some of the anti semitism activity that's been happening in
Europe in particular, where the baseline level of activity is
like in numerical terms but also in terms of severity,
is higher than it is in Australia. For instance, there's
more incidents, and they tend to be more severe if
they haven't reached into this kind of level of proper

(03:29):
kinetic terrorist activity. But it's more like sabotage than it
is graffiti. It's not to say that it hasn't happened
in Australia, obviously it has. But there are other parts
of the world where the kind of anti Semitism that
we've witnessed here has been more prevalent and more consequential,
you know, and Australia is I think this is something

(03:50):
that Australia and New Zealand has learned really in very
difficult ways. And speaking here about New Zealand's experience with
christ Church and now Australia's experience with Bundai, is that
as much as it is easy in both Australia and
New Zealand to feel like we're largely disconnected from the
world and that we live in splendid isolation, because for
most of the time we do, the reality is that

(04:12):
we don't. That these things happen all over the world,
and that that includes Australia and it includes New Zealand.
So you know, yes, we have had a significant increase
in anti Semitic activity in Australia since October seven. Much
of the Western world has experienced that significant uptick in
anti semitism. The United States has, Canada has, the UK

(04:34):
certainly has. So, you know, I think it's important in
these things. Regrettably, these kinds of incidents remind us that
Australia and New Zealand are part of the world despite
our geographic isolation.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
All right, well leave it there, Livia, I really appreciate
your analysis tonight, not be Levi West, who's say, national
security expert at A and you. For more from Hither
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