Federal Parliament has upgraded its security in the wake of the attack on the Canadian War Memorial and Canadian Parliament.
Extra heavily-armed police have been stationed around Parliament House today, after a gunman succeeded in breaching Canadian parliamentary security before being shot dead in the halls of Parliament in Ottawa.
In Canberra, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has expressed his condolences on behalf of Australians to his friend and colleague, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the people of Canada.
He has also moved to reassure Australians that their own Parliament is safe.
“Security was upgraded at this Parliament about six weeks ago in response to credible intelligence of a possible threat to this Parliament,” Mr Abbott told reporters.
“We believe that we are in a good position to respond to any hostile acts in this building.”
Mr Abbott said security was being constantly reviewed at Parliament House and other public buildings around Australia and at Australia’s military bases and places were military personnel were stationed.
“I do want to assure the Australian people that this Government will do everything we humanly can to keep our country and its people safe.”
He also repeated his assurances that the Government’s anti-terrorism measures were “directed against crime and terrorism, not against religion.
"I do want to reassure people and remind people that they should go about their normal lives because the fundamental objectives of the terrorists is to scare us from being ourselves.”
Mr Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will make statements to Parliament on the Canadian shootings at 2pm AEDT.
This morning, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop addressed the House of Representatives at the opening of its sitting, also assuring Members and other occupants of Parliament House that they were safe.
“Our Parliament and its perimeter are very different to the design of the Canadian Parliament and we have appropriate measures to prevent such an attack from succeeding here,” Mrs Bishop said.
“We have a number of layers of security measures designed to protect building occupants. The images showing members taking action and barricading themselves into the chamber in Canada are of concern. The range of armed response security and lockdown arrangements that we have in place means that this type of action will not be necessary here.”
She urged Members, staff and others in the building to “be vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour”.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan told Sky News there was “an increasing likelihood of something like this happening in Australia”.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s likely,” he said.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had spoken to her Canadian counterpart John Baird, who was inside the Canadian Parliament at the time, and to Australia’s High Commissioner to Ottawa, Louise Hand, who had confirmed Australian diplomatic staff were all safe.
Cabinet’s National Security Committee met this morning to discuss the implications of the Canadian incidents.
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