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Judith Ireland
A man who gatecrashed a Prime Ministerial press conference deep in the halls of Parliament House was already known to parliamentary security, a Senate Estimates hearing has been told.
The man – who got within reach of Julia Gillard during a press conference in August – had been disruptive during a committee hearing some 10 days earlier.
A description was circulated to security staff in anticipation of the next committee hearing.
On August 23, the man got through to the private working area of Parliament House and gained access to ministers’ offices.
He then wandered into a press conference being held by Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen in the Blue Room, which is down the hall from the Prime Minister’s office.
The man reached across Mr Bowen to put a piece of paper in front of the Prime Minister. He then left the room and was escorted out of the building by security staff.
The estimates hearing was also told that Treasurer Wayne Swan’s office had called security about the man before he entered the press conference.
Department of Parliamentary Services secretary Carol Mills told the hearing that security staff reached the Blue Room in two minutes, but it was too late.
Ms Mills described the incident as a “unique breakdown” in the security system.
“It’s not a pattern of failure,” she said.
“[The intruder] wandered down into an area that wasn’t demarcated [as a private area].”
Ms Mills said the man did not appear to have any malicious intentions.
“He didn’t appear to enter with a particular destination in mind,” she said.
While the department responded straight away to the security breach, Ms Mills told the hearing she was not informed until 90 minutes after the incident.
The DPS sectretary then commissioned a $30,000 report into the breach.
Ms Mills said security systems were in place at Parliament House and working effectively.
After the incident, the man, who was identified as Artem Naumov, told reporters outside Parliament that he had been trying to contact the police, MPs and ASIO about foreign intelligence threats as well as “threats to my life – and also, my child was abducted.”
Liberal Senator Scott Ryan told Ms Mills that there had been a lack of appreciation of the incident’s significance.
“There has to be more security than that for some of the most prominent people in our nation,” he said.