National security: playing fair with the bad guys

The Federal Minister For Justice, Michael Keenan, addressing the Lowy Institute on 24 July 2015, said, "It is no exaggeration to state that Australians are facing the most significant on-going threat from terrorism in our nation's history."

This threat is not coming from some unsophisticated ratbag movement, nor is it only an Australian problem. It is well-planned, well-financed, expertly organised and global. As the Minister has noted, "It [ISIL] has developed a deep and persuasive network of supporters that can spread their messages internationally to all corners of the globe." Even Twitter currently has 46 ISIL accounts each with an average 1,000 followers.

Clearly, these are abnormal times and abnormal times require exceptional laws. As in wartime when the ordinary standards of dealing with an adversary give way to less stringent rules of engagement, so too must we be prepared to accept laws that provide greater licence to our security forces in the fight against evil that is just as great a threat as that of any wartime hostile invader.

Quibbling over privacy issues in such measures as essential mega data retention laws and pandering to civil liberty concerns in lowering the age for control orders and extending custody time for suspected terrorists, is avoiding reality and is naïve. One horrendous terrorist event in the heart of the nation would quickly dispel all such concerns whilst the public and the media would be screaming for our security forces to be sacked, along with the government.

With cases overseas of children as young as 12 being radicalised to serve as suicide bombers in market places and strategic locations it is time to get real. We are not living in an ideal world.

The safeguard to all such necessary measures is to ensure that they are exercised with responsible executive approval and independent judicial oversight even if, in some circumstances, urgent action has to be taken as the situation dictates. In a democracy such as ours we must surely put trust in our ministers, judges and officials to see that the integrity of our system and the standards on which that system depends are maintained.

In this, it is important to distinguish our system of government from that of our good friend and ally the USA. A distinction which should be kept in mind by those who would have us become a republic with an elected president exercising executive powers outside the parliament. Never could any Australian prime minister or other member of the executive under our system of government have the unfettered power to permit our security agents to torture suspected terrorists as President George W Bush is said to have allowed the CIA to do post 9/11. (ABC Four Corners, Secrets, Politics and Torture 17 August 2015).