ASIO received 18 complaints against Lindt Cafe gunman Man Haron Monis days before he took customers and staff hostage in central Sydney and decided he was not a threat, the inquest into the tragedy has been told.
Eighteen calls and emails were made to the National Security Hotline on December 9, 2014 - six days before the siege - over offensive posts supportive of Islamic State that Monis made on his Facebook page.
Counsel assisting the inquest Jeremy Gormly SC said all the alerts were referred to ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, and it was "a question for consideration as to whether there was sufficient notice to authorities".
"What I'm asserting there is there was sufficient notice to assess and act upon it," he said.
The December alerts were the last in a string of interactions between Monis and ASIO over 18 years, starting from his arrival in Australia in 1996.
The inquest has begun closed hearings in which ASIO agents will be questioned about contact with Monis and their assessment of the risks he posed.
He took 18 people hostage in the siege which resulted in the deaths of lawyer Katrina Dawson and cafe manager Tori Johnson, while Monis was also killed.
In a public address before the hearings, Coroner Michael Barnes said he will consider whether ASIO had - or should have had - enough information on Monis to warrant an active response when the final hotline alerts were received.
"All the world now knows that Monis was a dangerous deviant. The questions the inquest must grapple with are: should ASIO have predicted his violent outburst," Mr Barnes said.
Monis was assessed at least three times by ASIO and found not to be a threat of terrorism or politically motivated violence, the court heard, although one adverse report was made in 1999 before being subsequently reassessed and reversed.
Mr Gormly said that in 1998 Monis called ASIO claiming to have information relevant to the Sydney Olympics.
Agents interviewed him twice and found he had no useful information.
Mr Gormly described the call as the start of a long series of contacts by Monis, "many of which seemed to amount to little more than nuisance calls".
Multiple complaints were made about Monis's Facebook page that reportedly contained a pledge of allegiance to the leader of Islamic State.
The inquest heard previously that Facebook removed a page set up by Monis, titled "Pledge of Allegiance", on December 9, 2014, for violating terms of use that ban hateful, threatening or obscene material.
ASIO concluded "the post did not indicate a desire or intent to engage in terrorism or politically motivated violence," Mr Gormly said.
Counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC said the hearings will look at information received about Monis and how his assessed risk compared to others.
The secret hearings will be followed by an eight-week block examining the conduct of the siege and hearing testimony from siege survivors and witnesses, starting on March 21, 2016.
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