New $31m centre to combat Victorian lone wolf attacks

Victoria will spend more than $30 million to establish a Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, aimed at identifying potential lone wolf terrorists.

The new unit will bring together specialised anti-terrorist police and mental health experts, in the hope of intervening in high risk cases before community safety is put at risk.

Twenty-five new staff will be employed to run the centre, which is based on similar models in Queensland, New South Wales, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther said the system would combine investigators, intelligence analysts and specialist clinicians.

“We’ll draw from a range of information sources,” he said.

“Some of those will come from the national security hotline, some of those will be persons of interest we currently have on our books, some will come from community reporting, and some will come within the actual health system itself.”

“The emphasis really here is about prevention.”

Police Minister Lisa Neville says cabinet asked police to examine the idea following the deadly Bourke Street incident in January.

“Victoria hasn’t been immune to the lone-offender attacks we are seeing across the world, and we’re responding by putting the protection of the community first,” she said.

Similar centres already operate in NSW and Queensland.