The original article can be read here.
Milanda Rout
A MAN who breached security to approach Julia Gillard was an identified troublemaker who spent 40 minutes visiting the restricted offices of the Wayne Swan and then-Speaker Peter Slipper without being apprehended by security staff.
A Senate committee heard this morning the extent of the security bungle that allowed Artem Naumov to walk into a press conference on August 23 and hand the Prime Minister a note which said: “How Could This Happen? Terrorism, Foreign Defence Intelligence Threats, Deaths and Zero Response from Australian Law Enforcement”.
Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Carol Mills, told the Senate estimates hearing that the man disrupted a parliamentary committee hearing the week before. This led to the committee requesting increased security for the next hearing. His photograph was also distributed to certain security staff who attended the hearings to watch for the individual.
Despite this, Ms Mills said it was “human error” that meant that there was no staff rostered to patrol areas around different committee hearings which allowed the man to cross from open to restricted hearings in parliament house.
Under questioning from Liberal Senator Scott Ryan, Ms Mills said once the man was able to get into the restricted areas, he went to the Treasurer’s office, the Speaker’s office and another MP’s office before attending the press conference.
She said security received a call from the Treasurer’s office about the unauthorised visitor but security did not have time to get to the man before he went into the Blue Room in the ministerial wing, where the press conference was held.
“I found it a most unsatisfactory situation,” Ms Mills said of the incident.
The Senate, Finance & Public Administration Legislation Committee also heard the incident happened at 12:30pm but she did not hear about it until 2pm.
“I was extremely concerned about that I was not notified promptly about this issue,” she said.
Ms Mills, who took over as secretary six months ago, said an independent review had been done on the incident and the security measures and rostering had been strengthened.
“It was an isolated incident and in the main, the system is working,” she said.
Outside the estimates hearing, Senator Ryan, who is deputy chair of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee, said the whole debacle was extraordinary.
“By definition, the security system at Parliament House broke down,” Senator Ryan, said. “It is ridiculous that an intruder, who was brought to the attention of Parliamentary Security only days before, was subsequently free to wander the building and approach the Prime Minister.”
Senator Ryan said he hoped the department would learn from the incident.
“It is just lucky that on this occasion, the intruder’s motives were not more sinister. I hope the Government encourages the department to make security at Parliament House its highest priority,” he said.