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ABC Online
Major changes have been made to Parliament House security after a man came within touching distance of the Prime Minister two months ago.
Parliamentary Services head Carol Mills has told a Senate estimates hearing that security failed when a man wearing a hoodie wandered through the most secure areas of the House and handed a document to Julia Gillard during a news conference.
Ms Mills was quizzed about the incident by Victorian Liberal senator Scott Ryan.
“Why are we making all our staff wear passes if this person dressed in a hoodie and jeans can wander around?” he said.
Ms Mills said a rostering mix-up was to blame and that it was not unusual to see some media and staffers dressed similarly.
“Changes have stopped the likelihood of it ever happening ever again,” she said, adding there was now extra security when the Prime Minister held a news conference.
Ms Mills told the hearing the man who breached security, Artem Naumov, had caused problems before.
A week before crashing the press conference, he had caused a disturbance in a committee hearing and extra security staff were rostered.
“A week later, this person can wander around the building unnoticed and go to several offices before the Deputy Prime Minister’s office calls, and between that phone call getting to within a couple of feet of the Prime Minister,” Senator Ryan said.
“This is not the security system that we would be hoping for for some of the people much more prominent than I that work in this building.”
Ms Mills says major changes have been made to the security system to ensure a similar incident will not happen again.
“It was not a pattern of failure, it was literally a one-off,” she said.
“The second issue is the information provided about this person was given only to the officers that attended that particular committee hearing.
“You know the beauty of hindsight is, did we under-react or overreact?”