Australia’s new terrorism alert system has gone live, with the current threat level established as “probable”.

Under the previous set-up the threat moved between low, medium, high and extreme. Australia’s threat level had been high since September last year.

The number of stages has now been increased from four to five and relabelled: not expected, possible, probable, expected and certain.

The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation has praised the new system, which will see more information passed to the public concerning types of threat.

The Council of Australian Governments agreed the change earlier this year.