The Muslim terrorist was solely responsible for those deaths, the coroner found. Nevertheless, he made more than 40 recommendations for better handling.

Moreover, the three leading figures have all moved on. The premier Mike Baird has left politics and entered the private sector. So has the police commissioner, Andrew Scipione. His deputy, Catherine Burns, is no longer responsible for security. There’s a new premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and a new chief of police, Mick Miller.

Some of the necessary changes have already been made, which cannot have been difficult, so obvious was the need to examine procedures.

What about risk aversion? Were the police fearful for their safety? The answer to that must be: probably not. If they were that sort of person, they were unlikely to have been members of the swat squad, with their body armour and leading edge assault rifles.

But I would suggest  they were frightened, legitimately, of finding themselves enmeshed in a storm of criticism, had they killed Man Monis before he began killing hostages.

So one must wonder whether supervening over responsibility for protecting people whose lives were in danger, was the need to cover their backsides against a media campaign that would put their careers in jeopardy. There may also have been a reasonable assumption that their superiors might not stand behind them.

So, as the hostages in groups escaped from the café (thus revealing a route through which those armed police could effect a rescue) they waited. And waited.

Why did the sniper in the Channel 7 office, when he had the terrorist in his sights, seek permission to pull the trigger, and why was it refused? Did two people die because the security forces were frightened of bad publicity, and not being backed by those in charge?

It would appear so.