Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared Islamic State is weak, saying it has more smartphones than guns and more Twitter accounts than soldiers.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull delivers his first national security statement as the country's prime minister at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo: AAP
In his first national security statement as prime minister, Mr Turnbull warned against taking the jihadist group's propaganda at face value.
"We must not be fooled by its hype. Its ideology is archaic but its use of the internet is very modern."
Mr Turnbull also repeated his rejection of calls from within his party for Australian troops to fight on the ground in Syria.
"There are currently no plans for a significant change in the level or the nature of Australia's military commitment in Iraq and Syria," he said.
"No such change has been sought by our allies - if one were, we would of course carefully consider it."
He said the current advice to the government was the unilateral deployment of Australian combat troops on the ground in either country was neither feasible or practical.
Mr Turnbull also announced the government would move to a new terrorism alert system that would provide more information on the nature of threats.
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