Malcolm Turnbull has demanded to know why the man who shot dead a receptionist in a Melbourne apartment block had been allowed out of jail into the community.
Yacqub Khayre had served jail time over a violent burglary in 2012, and had been on parole for arson since November of last year.
He's now dead, shot by police responders in Melbourne after killing a man and taking a woman hostage during a violent siege.
The man's been labelled a terrorist by police, and now the Prime Minister wants questions answered.
"How was this man on parole? He had a long record of violence, a very long record of violence. He had been charged with a terrorist offence some years ago and had been acquitted. He was known to have connections, at least in the past, with violent extremism."
Malcolm Turnbull says parole will be made a high priority for the already-planned Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart this Friday.
"These are important issues and Australians need to be assured that people who are a threat to their safety are not being released on parole. More investigations and explanations will be given but it is very hard, I think, to understand why he was released on parole given the nature of his record and the nature of his offence."
Friday's COAG will also be briefed by the national counter-terrorism coordinator to advise what more all jurisdictions can do to strengthen security at major public infrastructure, like stadiums.
Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Michael Phelan says when it comes to terrorism, the threat is real and the community is an important line of defence.
"It is important for all of us in the community and as part of law enforcement that we have as much information as we can to be able to disrupt activities. The national security hotline plays a very important role in that. If anybody out there in the community has any information, no matter how minuscule or unimportant you think it is, let us join the dots and let us put things together."
Man Haron Monis was also on parole when he launched the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney.
The man accused of murdering six people with his car on a rampage down Melbourne's Bourke Street was out on bail.
Dr Lorana Bartels is an Associate Professor at the School of Law and Justice at the University of Canberra.
She says there's not a lot the Commonwealth can do to address parole laws, which are crafted by state and territories - nor should it.
"I don't think that uniformity is a goal worth pursuing in this country. We have eight different systems. If our founding fathers were to do matters over perhaps we would have a different system but it's inevitable in a country like this, where we have a federal system, that there are differences, both in how the laws look and how they're administered."
Australia's terrorism threat level will not be raised and remains at probable.
Prime Minister Turnbull was asked in a press conference to clarify the definition of terrorism.
"An act of terrorism is, in a nutshell, politically motivated violence. But in this case, the offender made it - stated that he that he was doing this on behalf of ISIL and al-Qaeda."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten agrees that the man responsible for the attack in Melbourne shouldn't have been out on parole, but says he'll take the advice of the authorities as to what constitutes terrorism.
"Police have called it an act of terror and let's not pussyfoot around this - there are some people of Islamic faith who are committing criminal acts of terror and we've got to call it as it is, but in dealing with it we've also got to look at how to prevent it."
