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Canberra's doomsday plan
 The prime minister, his senior ministers, the governor-general and top public servants will be whisked off to a top-secret location, possibly a purpose-built underground bunker, so government can continue to function after a terror strike or nuclear attack on federal parliament. Government and intelligence sources have told The Bulletin that Cabinet's National Security Subcommittee, headed by Prime Minister John Howard, approved broad elements of the government post-doomsday blueprint in mid-2004 after a formative American model was put into action following al Qaeda's September 11 strikes on Washington and New York.Australia's final "continuity of government" plan, which deals with the practicalities of moving the executive, is now being prepared by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in limited consultation with the states and territories and their emergency service providers. Sources said Australia's plan would be triggered in the event of a nuclear strike or terrorist attack on Parliament House or any other area — for example, federal offices in Sydney or Melbourne — from which the government's executive was operating. It would also be enacted in the event of a strike which affected the availability of power, security and communications to the Cabinet. One figure closely involved with the plan said that in the event of a major terrorist attack on Parliament House, uninjured senior ministers and advisers would be evacuated to their new, secret location from the parliamentary precinct, if possible by road, with the help of the Australian Capital Territory's emergency services providers. While the dead and injured would be taken to hospital, the formative plan did not provide for an evacuation of the backbench or opposition to an alternative, secure parliament, sources said. This implies the executive would effectively work, unimpeded, without opposition. "It is, effectively, a plan that takes into account the worst-case scenario of a terrorist or, less likely, a nuclear attack on parliament when the House and Senate are sitting," a source involved in the plan said. "What happens, for example, if there is a terrorist attack at the joint sitting at the opening of parliament and the governor-general and the prime minister and a host of senior ministers are incapacitated? Where does the country run from if the seat of the executive is badly damaged?" Posted by: phil_b 2005-02-17 |
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