The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has criticised European security arrangements, arguing they were allowed to “slip” before Tuesday’s attacks in Belgium.
Turnbull had been asked whether an terrorist act similar to that in Brussels, which killed 31 and injured hundreds, could occur in Australia.
“You cannot guarantee that there will be no terrorist incident,” he told the ABC.
“But I can assure Australians that our security system, our border protection, our domestic security arrangements, are much stronger than they are in Europe, where regrettably they allowed security to slip.”
Turnbull said vulnerabilities in European security were “not unrelated to the problems they’ve been having in recent times”.
The federal opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said it was too soon after the attacks for “the prime minister [to] be telling the Belgians what they did wrong”.
“For me, today is about recognising that people have lost their lives — innocent people have lost their lives,” Shorten said.
“No doubt the hard questions will be asked in coming days.”
Australia’s official threat level currently indicates an attack is “probable”.
An inquest is currently under way into the December 2014 siege of a cafe in Sydney’s centre by a gunman claiming he was acting on behalf of Islamic State. Three died, including the gunman, Man Haron Monis, when police stormed the building.
A 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly planning to send funds to Islamic State.
The arrested are part of a broader police operation that claims to have stopped another teenager from stabbing a member of the public and draping their body with the militant group’s flag.
