Police chief questions army terror role

Federal police chief Andrew Colvin has talked down the need to make it easier for the military to be called in to deal with terrorism incidents.

A number of coalition MPs, including former SAS commander Andrew Hastie, have called for specialist military involvement if a terrorism event is deemed to be an "attack on the commonwealth".

The government is reviewing the call-out powers under the Defence Act which limit the ability of the Australian Defence Force to get involved in an incident except where police decide they do not have the capability to deal with it.

In the case of the 2014 Lindt cafe siege, the assistance of Sydney-based Tactical Assault Group East was not sought.

The AFP commissioner told the National Press Club on Wednesday he was open to a "conversation" about streamlining the call-out powers.

"(But) I think the arrangements that we have now work and clearly we have shown to be quite successful," Mr Colvin said.

The AFP's relationship with the defence force is very strong and the military's capability "clearly sits above what police have".

But the international experience was a terrorism event was usually over within 15 minutes and the potential to deploy defence or even police tactical teams "is questioned".

"The focus needs to be on the first line responders and what they can do," he said.