NSW police have agreed to provide the families of Lindt Cafe siege victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson with a summary of highly sensitive documents setting out proposed tactics on the night of the siege.
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But the families have reserved the right to ask NSW Coroner Michael Barnes to give them access to the documents in full if the summaries are inadequate.
The siege inquest, which started in January last year, is set to consider the adequacy of the police response to the tragedy. The final phase of hearings is due to start on March 21.
Ms Dawson, a mother of three young children, was killed by a stray police bullet when gunman Man Haron Monis, who executed Mr Johnson, became involved in a shoot-out with police in the final stages of the siege.
Lawyers for the Dawson and Johnson families have expressed concern that they may not be given access to so-called Emergency Action and Deliberate Action plans setting out police tactics on the night of the siege.
The Commonwealth and the NSW Police Commissioner have sought to block the release of some documents to the inquest on the grounds of public interest immunity, claiming it is not in the interests of public safety and national security for parts of some documents to be aired.
A compromise arrangement would have seen some material being made available to Mr Barnes and counsel assisting him, but not to the families of the victims. The material will not be released publicly.
Phillip Boulten, SC, for the Dawson family, said his clients were being "very reasonable but they're still very anxious to know as much as possible about plans considered and executed on the night of the siege".
NSW police would prepare the summary of the Emergency Action and Deliberate action plans.
Mr Boulten said the "worst case scenario" would be if the summaries were "no good" and the lawyers for the families returned to the inquest in February seeking access to the documents in full.
Counsel for the Johnson family, Gabrielle Bashir, SC, said the family was also interested in plans that were not carried out on the night of the siege, "although [they were] in place".
The families have not objected to some other information only being provided to the coroner and counsel assisting him, although Mr Boulten said access should be extended to a team of British police officers who are reviewing the actions of the NSW Police as part of the inquest.
Counsel for the NSW Police Commissioner, Robin Bhalla, said some of the material would require a strict secrecy regime and might require the documents to be held in a safe.
The documents "touch upon issues of national security and public safety" and the usual means of filing documents "just won't suffice".
