‘We cannot be complacent’: Wake-up call for Australia after New Orleans terror attack

Fighting terrorism in Australia in 2025 is more about tackling the cost-of-living crisis and creating meaningful employment than countering a specific terror cell, security experts say.

A camera on Bourbon St in New Orleans captures the F-150 driven by ISIS-inspired terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar as people jump out of its way.

Fighting the “metastasised” threat of Islamic State and other forms of terrorism in Australia in 2025 is more about tackling the cost-of-living crisis and creating meaningful employment opportunities for young Australian men than throwing extra resources at countering a specific terror cell, security experts say.

The former US army officer with an ISIS flag on his vehicle who mowed down pedestrians on Bourbon St in New Orleans on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) appeared to have been radicalised after suffering financial problems and a messy second divorce. Fifteen people were killed in the attack, and 30 more were injured.

Clive Williams, director of the Terrorism Research Centre in Canberra, said it was clear the US had “become complacent in New Orleans” and this should be a “wake-up call for us (in Australia), that we shouldn’t be complacent”, particularly when major attacks can be perpetrated by someone who isn’t on the radar of intelligence agencies.

He said Australia had good protective security for major events but there was “a tendency on the part of bureaucracies to start to wind back (protections) as cost-saving exercises when nothing has happened for a long time”.

“(This is a) lesson for us that we need to be on our guard still,” he said.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security programs director John Coyne. Picture: Newswire / Gary Ramage

Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security programs director John Coyne said ISIS and al-Qa’ida continue to operate, and may be stronger than at any time since the fall of the self-professed caliphate in 2019.

“There are still training camps in Afghanistan for foreign fighters. Attacks will happen. As good as the intelligence services are, police aren’t going to be able to stop every attack,” he said, despite the public’s “zero tolerance for counter-terrorism failures”.

Dr Coyne said the terrorist threat in the West was “broader” than it had ever been. A man who carried out a similar car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg expressed anti-Islam and far-right views.

“I think that the terrorism threat in general has metastasised and broadened more so than any time before. Everything from right-wing extremists and white nationalists, all the way to Islamic-inspired terrorism … Despite retaking ground and ending the caliphate, ISIS has metastasised and has a stickiness in the region,” he said.

Dr Coyne said the same factors that created a generation of al-Qa’ida and ISIS-inspired terrorism “prevailed today”, with the “accelerant” of the conflict in the Middle East.

“The question isn’t how do we target them, the real question is why are so many of our young people so dissatisfied, so disengaged, why are they seeking out extremist perspectives, be it ISIS or white nationalism … This cynicism of opportunity, cost-of-living pressures, loneliness, lack of social cohesion, lack of faith in the system to bring about realistic change.”

Dr Coyne said there needed to be “a continuous requirement to address the issue of social cohesion in Australia” to counter the threat.

“How do we make sure a generation of young Australians, as many as possible, are engaged in politics, and how our system works?” he said.

Deakin University associate professor Josh Roose.

Deakin University associate professor Josh Roose said more needed to done to reach young men, and the economy was a major issue.

“Men aren’t having discussions at universities and developing liberal frameworks (like women tend to), they're getting online, getting immersed in ‘bro’ culture, Joe Rogan, UFC and the Dana White effect, that prioritises physical aggression,” he said.

“They’re looking to the economy to improve, they’re looking at … their life status, the chances and opportunities that their fathers are perceived to have had over them. Buying a house with one income, that’s never going to happen again. The critical question is what can we do to not only keep people in meaningful work and employment, but to enhance their potential to build a better life for themselves and their family.”

Dr Roose said these themes would be “indicative of the many forms of new extremism we are going to see going forward”.

“We’re going to see a long tail from Covid, and the cost-of-living crisis … (as well as) geostrategic tensions and, as has been identified by many scholars, this is a problem that’s going to be around for a hell of a long time, and may well get worse before it gets better.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud said Australia needed “to be more vigilant” of an ISIS-style attack on Australian shores.

He criticised the Albanese government for bringing in nearly 3000 Palestinians following the start of the conflict in the Middle East.

“And so if you’re going to bring someone to this country, we don’t want to transfer that hate that is permeating the Middle East into the streets of Australia,” Mr Littleproud said.