Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ordered an urgent inquiry into the deadly Martin Place siege as authorities faced fierce scrutiny over why the gunman was free despite the raft of serious criminal charges against him.
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NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Wednesday was adamant police did all they could to stop Monis being released on bail.
"We were concerned that this man got bail from the very beginning," he said.
However when police charged Monis with more than 30 sexual and indecent assault charges in October, prosecutors did not seek a review of his bail. He had already been charged with a dozen similar offences and was accused of being an accessory to the murder of his ex wife.
As tens of thousands of Sydneysiders flocked to Martin Place with flowers to pay respects to the two lives lost, Mr Abbott said the probe would ask how Monis was granted Australian citizenship and whether police made the right call in refraining from using a sniper to kill him.
It would also examine whether police, security and immigration agencies adequately monitored Monis and properly co-ordinated their response as the picture of a troubled and dangerous man emerged.
Using his strongest language yet to express his concerns about the case, Mr Abbott said there had been "incredulity" within his government on learning the extent of Monis' criminal background.
"We particularly need to know how someone with such a long record of violence, such a long record of mental instability, was out on bail after his involvement in a particularly horrific crime."
A NSW Police Force statement said the Department of Public Prosecutions was of the belief in October that Monis would be released regardless of an attempt to revoke his bail.
"On two previous occasions, NSW Police had bail refused the offender, but bail was subsequently granted by the court," the statement said.
"While police continued to hold the view the offender should not be released on bail, as indicated in the Fact Sheet, the DPP held the contrary view that in light of the court's previous position, bail would not be opposed."
The DPP said it would not comment on the matter.
Mr Scipione said Monis might not have been granted bail had he been on a terror watch list – a federal responsibility.
"Clearly we work on a priority based system and so that if somebody is on a national security watch list then we pay particular attention to them, but on this occasion this ... individual was not [on a list]."
The announcement of the inquiry was mired in confusion from the start after Mr Abbott said Monis had a gun licence – a claim later rejected by NSW Police who said there was no record of the 50-year-old having held a firearms licence.
A federal source said Mr Abbott's claim was based on information provided by NSW authorities.
Court documents show that Monis claimed in a 2011 police interview that he had previously held a gun licence but that it had "expired many years ago".
Mr Abbott confirmed that Monis had been on an ASIO "watch list" in 2008 and 2009.
But the security agency had ended the surveillance.
"I don't know know why he dropped off the watch list in those days, I really don't. That's one of the reasons why we need this inquiry, so we can find out why he dropped off the watch list and try to ensure that people only go off the watch list if they really are no longer a potential threat and plainly this individual was."
The inquiry will be headed by the secretaries of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Premier and Cabinet in New South Wales.
Mr Abbott also left open the possibility of giving ASIO and law enforcement agencies more money and powers to monitor people deemed a risk, though he stressed the government had already allocated an extra $630 million to these agencies in August.
with Nick Ralston
