The Federal Attorney-General said Australia's largest counterterrorism exercise, Mercury 08, simulated terrorist attacks in Queensland and Western Australia.

Under National Security Committee of Cabinet: The Commonwealth's National Security Committee of Cabinet was set up to make decisions about Australia's governmental response. Also taking part were the Protective Security Coordination Centre as well as Emergency Management Australia.

Test run: It was held to test whole-of-government decision making, information sharing, intelligence management, critical infrastructure protection and the important area of airport security. The exercises tested the new national counterterrorism alert system and interoperability between civilian and military counterterrorism capabilities. 44 observers from 18 countries took part.