Saturday, January 01, 2011 » 07:06am

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser believed Australia's offshore oil platforms were prime terrorist targets, but sceptical officials were maddeningly slow to act on his concern, 1980 cabinet papers reveal.

The cabinet papers - released by the National Archives of Australia under the 30-year rule - show Fraser had to demand action to develop better protective measures.

At that time Australia was around 80 per cent self-sufficient for fuel, produced mostly from Bass Strait oil.

But terrorists overseas had demonstrated an interest in hitting oil infrastructure, and Fraser believed the Australian facilities were especially vulnerable.

A memo to cabinet on May 8 canvassed the issue of oil rig security, noting that the Australian Security intelligence Organisation (ASIO) believed the current terror risk to be low.

The new counter-terrorist Tactical Assault Group, raised from the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment, was declared operational on May 9. It had the ability to take on terrorists holding aircraft or buildings but not oilrigs.

The memo noted that Fraser had called for an immediate report on means to protect the Bass Strait facilities.

Another memo on May 22 noted various protective measures, but conceded they did not reflect the government's assessment of the risk or the importance it attached to protection of the facilities.

Fraser was livid.

In a letter written the next evening, he let fly, citing a test he had set that afternoon to assess how well and how quickly authorities could react to a lodgement of terrorists on a Bass Strait oil rig.

'The assessment revealed that preparations for dealing properly and urgently with such a lodgement simply do not exist - despite my repeated directions that work proceed expeditiously,' he said.

'This is totally unsatisfactory and I shall no longer put up with continued delay which amounts to obstructionism, even if it is not so intended.

'The root cause of this unacceptable situation is that officials do not accept that the threat of a lodgement is sufficiently high to warrant serious, determined and urgent planning to meet the threat.'

Fraser said from now on officials were not to substitute their own assessments and priorities for the government's.

'I will simply not have Australia put in a position where it could be successfully blackmailed through lack of prior thought and preparations on the part of the government,' he said.

'An Australian capacity to protect Australian assets is thus warranted urgently, and I will brook no further delays.'

That appears to have done the trick. In a memo dated June 13, defence chief Admiral Anthony Synnot and Australian Federal Police commissioner Colin Woods cited a variety of measures to lift oil rig security.

That included SASR developing a capability to retake any oil rig seized by terrorists.

In the past 30 years, there's been no terror attack on an Australian offshore oil facility and not too many overseas, either.

However, terror groups such as al-Qaeda have expressed a persistent interest in attacking onshore oil infrastructure, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The potential for catastrophe feared by Fraser was realised in 1998 with the accidental explosion at the Longford gas plant, the onshore receiving point for oil and gas from Bass Strait facilities.

The blast killed two workers and cut all gas supplies to Victoria for a fortnight.

An assessment of the terror risk to Australian offshore facilities, released in 2005 by the federal Office of Transport Security, noted that many of the potential risks identified by Fraser remain.

However, Australia does now have far more robust counter-terror response arrangements than existed three decades ago.

Terror attacks on oil facilities are more popular in fiction.

Curiously, one movie featuring just such a scenario - North Sea Hijack starring Roger Moore, James Mason and Anthony Perkins - was released in April 1980.

The cabinet papers - released by the National Archives of Australia under the 30-year rule - show Fraser had to demand action to develop better protective measures.

At that time Australia was around 80 per cent self-sufficient for fuel, produced mostly from Bass Strait oil.

Yeah Jack..but what saves us is that most 'terrorists' don't even know where Australia IS...So it's a little hard to set up an attack on a place you can't find on a map...

Malcom Fraser is also livid at the fact that he can`t remember who succeeded Gough Witless as PM, or how to undo his fly in time for a pee pee.   Picking on poor old Mal like this is like giving Steady Eddie a job shuffeling razor blades.

gizmo_2655 wrote on Jan 1^st, 2011 at 1:36pm:




LOL!!!!

if only it were true.. I am sure ruddy is making us as well known as a target as anyone can...LOL..were is the little devil now then?.. surely not in Qld with his bucket and mop.