NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione's claim that the Martin Place gunman might not have been free on bail had he been on an ASIO "watch list" has caused anger amongst federal authorities, Fairfax Media understands.
It came as Treasurer Joe Hockey criticised security and law enforcement agencies, openly expressing dissatisfaction that they had failed to detect the danger posed by gunman Man Haron Monis despite a recent funding boost.
"How we missed him is a source of immense frustration to us, particularly given that we have given more resources to our security agencies, and also because at a state level, I know Mike Baird and Commissioner Scipione have done everything they can as well. We have got to get lessons out of this," he said on Thursday morning.
The additional funding in fact is for the next four years and was announced only in August.
Fairfax Media has been told there is considerable frustration among federal security officials about complaints that Monis was not on any terrorism "watch list".
In particular, tensions were raised after Mr Scipione said on Thursday that Monis might not have been granted bail had he been on such a watch list.
"Clearly we work on a priority-based system and so that if somebody is on a national security watch list then we pay particular attention to them, but on this occasion this … individual was not [on a watchlist]."
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also publicly questioned why Monis was not on any watch list.
But terrorism expert Greg Barton, from Monash University, said such commentary was "inaccurate" because there was no such thing as a single list but rather varying degrees or "concentric circles" of monitoring and surveillance depending on priorities and resources.
"I don't think there was any obvious security lapse (by ASIO)," he said.
Attorney-General George Brandis also distanced himself from Commissioner Scipione's remarks, telling ABC radio: "I think we need to be careful with this word 'watch list' because … there are various levels of investigation or scrutiny that ASIO conducts."
Professor Barton said it was hard to see how an ASIO assessment or intelligence could affect a bail hearing given it was highly unlikely to be admissible in a court.
But he said that it could emerge from the inquiry Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced this week into the deadly siege that there were shortcomings in co-operation between state and federal law enforcement and security agencies.
"My observation is that globally interagency co-operation is one of the big challenges in security, particularly in counterterrorism. It's a perennial challenge that every country faces," he said.
ASIO would be unlikely to have viewed Monis as a significant threat because he was Shiite – and therefore unlikely to link up with existing Sunni extremist networks – and because he had no standing as a religious cleric and was "disliked by pretty much everyone", he said.
But he added the one issue that perhaps should have caught ASIO's attention was Monis' statement online in recent months that he had converted from Shia to Sunni Islam.
Professor Barton said the government should do more on "case management" of high-risk young religious extremists using community leaders, psychologists, social workers and police working together – an approach that had been highly effective in Singapore.
