A security review of the 25,000-seat Canberra Stadium will bring more CCTV cameras, stronger entrance gates and the deployment of portable vehicle-protection barriers.
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The government allocated $440,000 in the recent ACT budget specifically to Canberra Stadium "physical security" upgrades after the review last year identified "opportunities to further strengthen security arrangements".
This came on top of $975,000 put toward CCTV enhancements over four years in the 2018-19 budget, both at the stadium and at other unspecified locations around Canberra.
The Bruce stadium already has 75 cameras connected to a common network and viewed by police from their dedicated CCTV control centre behind newly refurbished operations room at the Winchester Police Centre in Belconnen.
The government is remaining coy about how many new cameras will be installed at the stadium, or whether emerging technologies such as facial recognition will be added. But it says the measures will "complement existing security arrangements ... and are in line with similar security upgrade works at other stadium across Australia".
A new security master plan is understood to be under development for Canberra's largest sports venue, with the protection of crowded places and places of mass gathering under intense focus following the March terrorist attacks in New Zealand on two Christchurch mosques.
Sports stadiums and events have generally been regarded as "soft targets" for terrorist attacks, as highlighted by the attack on the 2013 Boston marathon where two bombs went off near the finish line, killing three people and injuring dozens of others.
Parking areas, the ticketing and access areas and even the transport hubs where supporters mingle before and after a game are targeted more often than inside.
In 2017 a stadium in Manchester was targeted by a suicide bomber outside the venue as concert-goers left.
In 2015, the Stade de France in Paris was the target of suicide bombers and active shooters, who struck the outside of the stadium while a soccer match was under way inside.
However, anywhere where people gather in number is regarded as a potential target, whether from weapons, bombs or vehicle attacks.
Australia's most recent and deadliest attack was in 2017, when Dimitrious Gargasoulas used his car to run down and kill six people and wound about 30 others in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. Among the victims was a 10-year-old girl.
That same year the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee released its national strategy document for protecting crowded places from terrorism, defining them as "locations which are easily accessible by large numbers of people on a predictable basis".
The predictability of mass gatherings such as sports events allows attackers to plan and find areas of vulnerability.
The onus of responsibility now falls on business and government to deliver a safe environment, with the committee pointing out that "reputation is prone to serious and permanent damage if owners and operators of crowded places give a less-than-robust responsible, professional priority to protecting people against attack".
A self-assessment tool for business owners and managers of major events is posted on the ACT Policing website although there is no record kept of the results.