90 MINUTES – AND NOBODY ASKED THE ONE QUESTION
The head of ASIO sat in the box for 90 minutes. Nobody asked him what ASIO knew about the killers.
Let that sink in.
A royal commission into a massacre. The spy chief on the stand, and the one question that actually matters, what did you know about these two men?, never got asked.
The lawyers had the material. They knew the son had been investigated back in 2019 and flagged on a watchlist in 2022. It was sitting in ASIO’s own written submission.
They just…. didn’t put it to him.
A federal police officer got 37 minutes. Asked if anti-Jewish violence was a priority before the attack, he said “strategic priority”, and was ushered off before anyone asked what that meant.
The hearings examining the attack itself? Held behind closed doors. Eyewitnesses who were there that night? Ruled out. Five of the recommendations? Classified, you’re not allowed to read them.
This is what accountability looks like when it’s designed not to find anything.
When the one bloke who knows walks out unquestioned, that’s not an oversight. That’s the point.
Who decided not to ask?
Peter Lyndon-James
Sources:
– Aaron Patrick, The Nightly (Burgess 90 mins, not questioned on watchlist; AFP officer Stephen Nutt 37 mins); ASIO submission to Royal Commission (2019 investigation, 2022 threat list); SMH (eyewitness accounts ruled out, 23 Feb 2026); interim report (5 classified recommendations).