Lock them up, keep us safe
BIPARTISAN political support for new laws to keep our most dangerous home-grown terrorists behind bars indefinitely is good news for all Australians.
Opinion
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BIPARTISAN political support for new laws to keep our most dangerous home-grown terrorists behind bars indefinitely is good news for all Australians.
Convicted terrorists like Abdul Nacer Benbrika, whose sentence expires in 2019 and who can apply for parole next year, simply pose too great a risk to be returned to the society they have pledged to destroy.
The post-sentence detention laws have been personally devised by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and endorsed by Labor.
Criminals could be locked up indefinitely
A report by the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence Matters will be formally released this week.
The decision comes amid rising concerns about the potential return of Australian citizens who have been fighting with Islamic State and other groups in Syria and Iraq.
The Herald Sun on Monday reveals that some Australian foreign fighters have gained access to their superannuation accounts to help finance their activities with terrorist groups in the Middle East.
An investigation into money laundering and terrorism financing in Australia’s superannuation sector has revealed 19 “suspicious” cases.
A range of other suspicious matters, including potential tax evasion, unusual account activity, unusually large transfers and unauthorised account transactions, were also reported.
These activities show the lengths to which our home-grown terrorists will go to be on the front line of radical Islam’s unholy jihad, and further underscores the need for laws that can keep Australians at home safe from their evil violence.
Benbrika, who is serving a 15-year term for leading a terrorist cell that talked of bombing the MCG, is likely to be the first inmate to be considered under the new laws.
Although he could be deported under dual foreign citizenship rules, it is unlikely another country would accept him.
Under current laws, if Benbrika were released on parole next year, on the grounds that he is no longer a risk to the community, he could not be subjected to a post-release detention order. And on completing his full sentence in 2019, he would be free to move about as he wishes.
Benbrika is believed to be one of 13 dangerous terrorists who could become targets of the new indefinite detention laws.
There are also 37 people before the courts on terrorism-related charges that carry a maximum sentence of seven years or more — the proposed trigger for post-sentence detention.
At present, the only alternatives to indefinite detention are costly control orders, which would involve security guards monitoring the activities of the likes of Benbrika around the clock.
Not only would this option cost many millions of dollars, it is far less certain to prevent fundamentalist fanatics from carrying out their evil plans, either directly or through the influence they exert over others.
Given the overwhelming public support for the use of continuing controls and detention of our worst sex offenders, it is to be hoped that support for the similar indefinite detention of terrorists would extend to most quarters of the community that these proposed laws are designed to protec
GALLOPING FOR CUP GLORY
MICHELLE Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, will be back at Flemington tomorrow — but she won’t be saddling up to try to repeat last year’s fairytale triumph.
A fall in May put the champion jockey in hospital. And Prince of Penzance, the 100-1 outsider she urged to victory, has broken down and gone to the paddock.
Each year, the great race produces drama, dreams and dashed hopes, and tomorrow will be no different.
There will be tears, and there will be triumphs.
A crowd of 100,000 is expected to watch the race from Flemington’s grandstands, lawns and corporate marquees. And 8000 visitors have sailed into Melbourne aboard a flotilla of cruise ships to see the race that stops the nation — and now, the world.
The gruelling race for stayers over 3200m has been dominated by international stayers and trainers — until last year’s upset.
This year, Katelyn Mallyon will saddle up in the hope of becoming the second female jockey to win the race.
Payne might not have a horse in the big one, but she will ride in two other races.
Punters will put a dollar on just because she’s in the saddle.
The Cup is the high point of an incredible spending spree expected to inject $7 million into the state’s economy.
The Melbourne Cup Carnival will see the TAB take an estimated $416 million in bets.
Jameka, trained by young Ciaron Maher at Warrnambool, is the only Australian-bred runner.
Can the Caulfield Cup winner run the extra distance in the Melbourne Cup?
“It’s only an extra 800m,” Maher told the Herald Sun’s Matt Stewart.
“What’s the big deal?”
The weather is forecast to be partly cloudy with a chance of showers.
See you at the Cup.
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