Brussels attacks: Don’t be fooled we are immune: Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull yesterday hammered home the differences between Australia and the ‘crisis’ of Islamic extremism in Europe.

Malcolm Turnbull speaks at the annual Lowy lecture in Sydney last night.

Malcolm Turnbull spent yesterday hammering home the differences between Australia’s security situation and the “crisis” of Islamic extremism that engulfs Europe.

In unusually blunt comments from this Prime Minister, Turnbull pointed to Europe’s weak borders, decades of unchecked migration — much of it from North Africa — and the hopeless dysfunction of its security agencies, which operate as a series of independent fiefdoms.

Should anyone doubt this, consider the following: in Belgium, the country where Islamist violence is at its most florid, police and intelligence agencies are forbidden by law from sharing information.

Turnbull might have also pointed to the ready availability of explosives and precursors, as well as eastern Europe’s booming black market in firearms.

Thankfully, none of those conditions prevail here. But Australians should not fool themselves into thinking we are immune from the scourge of Islamic State terror.

Many of the drivers that gave rise to the awful violence in Brussels also exist here.

Australian Islamists have embraced the Islamic State cause with unusual enthusiasm, flocking en masse to the Syrian battlefield.

In 2014, Attorney-General George Brandis told an audience in Washington that ­Australia had, pound for pound, become one of the richest sources of foreign fighters: “I’m sorry to have to tell you that per capita Australia is one of the largest sources of foreign war fighters to the Syrian conflict from among countries outside the ­immediate vicinity.’’

There are 110 Australians fighting in the Syrian-Iraq theatre, many remaining in contact with extremists in Australia. About 50 more fighters from Australia have died in the conflict.

Some of those who left Australia, such as former Melbourne man Neil Prakash or Mohammad Baryalei, have been involved in planning attacks here on behalf of Islamic State.

So far those attacks have been crude. But, like all criminals, terrorists evolve and what might seem like a primitive capability now could morph into a more sophisticated tradecraft.

While Australia has not exper­ienced illegal immigration flows on anything near the scale of Europ­e, about 50,000 asylum-seekers ­arrived by boat under the previous government. Thanks to people-smugglers who instruct client­s to throw away their passports, the identity of many will forever remain a mystery.

These migrants, most of whom are poor and uneducated, could easily become fodder for the next generation of extremist recruiters if they are not properly integrated into mainstream Australian life.

Additionally, there are about 190 Australians under investigation for assisting Islamic State and about 40 people who fought in Syria and have since returned. Perhaps most worryingly, 165 Australians have had their passports cancelled for extremist activity or because they planned to fight in Syria.

Most of them remain in Australia. Deprived of the opportunity to conduct jihad in Syria, they may instead elect to wage it here.