Sydney public terror fears The Australian 16 May 2006

TUESDAY 16 MAY:

John Stapleton

THE 600,000 people who live and work in the centre of Sydney would have absolutely no idea what to do in a terror attack, the NSW Opposition claimed yesterday.

The claims came at the beginning of a major three day counter-terrorist exercise on Sydney Harbour called ``Neptune's Treasure''. The scenario includes terrorists taking ferry passengers hostage.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma denied there was any specific threat to tourist icons such as the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, despite the high profile nature of the exercises and the recent increase in surveillance cameras on the bridge.

The operation includes more than 250 police officers, Emergency Services and the Australian Defence Force. Residents around harbour suburbs including Drummoyne, Balmain and Mosman are seeing increased police, defence and emergency service activity.

Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Andrew Humpherson condemned the NSW government's involvement as a PR stunt. ``Ask anyone in the city what they should do or where they should go in the event of a terror alert and I suggest you would struggle to get a confident response,'' he said. ``There is no doubting our police, security forces and emergency services need training to handle any terror situation that may arise. However the more than 600,000 people the government estimates live and work in the city do not know what is required of them in the even of an alert or even worse, an attack.

``Sending tens of thousands into city parks to be secondary targets is about as elaborate as the government's Emergency Plan gets, at least to the person on the street.

``Mass panic or indecision will not help anyone in such a situation.''

Mr Humpherson backed claims by some of the country's leading doctors that Australia was ill-prepared for a terrorist attack. The Australian reported on Monday claims by some of the nation's leading trauma specialists, including Dr George Merridew, an anaesthetist who worked on some of the Bali bomb victims, that an event only half as serious as Bali would stretch Australia's medical resources beyond breaking point. ``I have received advice from emergency services that they have major concerns that the resources are not there,'' he said. ``I share the doctor's concerns.''

Premier Morris Iemma said the government had made considerable additional investments to ensure the hospital system and specialist burns units were prepared for an attack. Chief Executive of the NSW Ambulance Service said they had learnt from the experiences in London, Madrid and New York to ensure the lives of critically injured patients could be saved.