Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks during a media conference announcing the country's national security plan to protect public places in central Sydney on August 20, 2017. David Gray / Reuters
Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks during a media conference announcing the country's national security plan to protect public places in central Sydney on August 20, 2017. David Gray / Show more

'How-to guide' to protect Australians from vehicle attacks



Australia released on Sunday a strategy to prevent vehicle terror attacks carried out in crowded public places following deadly assaults in Barcelona, Nice and London.

The report — commissioned after 86 people were killed in the Nice truck attack last year — gives venue operators a "toolkit" to work from when addressing terrorism concerns.

"As we have seen from tragic events in Paris, London, Berlin and Barcelona, terrorists continue to target crowded places," prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement.

"The strategy will assist owners and operators to increase the safety, protection and resilience of crowded places across Australia."

The strategy offers businesses and local governments a guide to assessing how vulnerable their sites are to attacks, including from vehicles, and how to make them safer.

Suggested steps include deterrent options like fencing and closed circuit cameras, delaying approaches such as trees and statues to slow down vehicles, and quick response staff.

"You can obviously have bollards, you can have seating … you can have works of art, you can have steps, planter boxes," Mr Turnbull added to reporters in Sydney.

"At the design stage, it can be done very unobtrusively."

The report acknowledged that even the best plans might not stop attacks on crowded locations, but said the measures could reduce the likelihood of such assaults and their consequences.

"It is a constant battle for us. It is a tragic reflection of our times that we need to be taking these sorts of measures," transport minister Darren Chester told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation earlier Sunday.

"I think inevitably there will be restrictions that may affect people as they go about their daily lives, but it is a balancing act I guess."

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The attack in Barcelona on Thursday left 14 people dead and hundreds injured after a van sped down the popular Las Ramblas avenue, which was packed full of tourists.

Three Australians were wounded while a young boy, a British-Australian dual national, reportedly remains missing after the attack.

Australia is no stranger to vehicle-style attacks, with six people killed in January after a car mowed down shoppers in the heart of its second-largest city Melbourne.

The attack, which was not terror-related, shocked Australians and took place near Melbourne Park where top tennis stars were playing in 2017's opening Grand Slam.

Canberra has become increasingly worried about home-grown extremism and officials say they have prevented 13 terror attacks on home soil in the past few years.

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How has net migration to UK changed?

The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.

It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.

The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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