Dr Nicola McGarrity appeared on ABC's Lateline (6 June 2017) regarding the recent terrorist attack in Victoria.

Dr McGarrity said, "In my mind there are a number of other factors in play in this particular , including the existence of evidence of drug addiction on the part of the perpetrator, Yacqub Khayre, as well as some evidence that potentially he may have had a mental illness that contributed to these events". 

"He spent most of his adult life in some form of imprisonment and throughout that period of time, numerous comments had been made by judges in sentencing him for the variety of offences which he committed to the effect that he was drug-addicted, that he needed to seek counselling and assistance in order to prevent him from offending again in the future". 

She went on to say, "I think it is very easy in hindsight to blame the parole system. There was a high chance regardless of when he was released, whether it be during the parole period or after he had served his entire period of imprisonment, that he would commit another offence". 

Dr McGarrity went on to raise questions as to why Yacqub Khayre wasn't being more closely monitored by police, "Whether he's been acquitted in the past, convicted or has not previously been the subject of a prosecution, regardless of those circumstances, there are a range of tools in place that the police could have used if they thought it was justified to restrict this particular individual's liberty. None of those tools were used". 

Watch the full story here.