Peter Dutton says judicial appointments, soft sentencing contributed to spate of public attacks in Victoria

Peter Dutton cites judicial appointments and soft sentencing as factors which have contributed to a spate of attacks in Victoria.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has criticised Victoria’s judiciary in a discussion about Friday’s Bourke Street terror attack, citing judicial appointments and soft sentencing as factors which have contributed to a spate of public attacks in the state.

Mr Dutton told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that the federal government was making it harder to get Australian citizenship in a bid to improve national security and was also stepping up efforts to deport visa holders and dual citizens suspected to have terror links.

But his most strident comments were saved for the Victorian judiciary and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who he named when asked why the state had seen a higher incidence of car attacks and terror plots than other states.

“Frankly I think we’ve got some particular problems in Victoria, some of the judicial appointments — I think whilst Mr Andrews talks tough during an election campaign about these matters, he spends the other three-and-a half years being pretty soft on law and order,” Mr Dutton said.

“We see situations where people are given suspended sentences or there’s no deterrent, there’s no impact that you might see in other jurisdictions of a custodial sentence. They’re all issues for consideration.

“But the general point is that you’ve got places of mass gathering and they are targets, that’s the reality and we’ve been warned of that by police for a long period of time and it’s just not an easy reality to deal with.”

Mr Dutton’s comments came four days after the terror attack on Bourke Street in which well-known cafe owner Sisto Malaspina was killed and two others were stabbed in a frightening incident that also involved a flaming ute.

The attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, was known to state and federal police and was being monitored as part of a federal watch list when he committed the attack, but was able to evade detection when he bought the knife and gas bottles used.

Mr Dutton said the unsophisticated nature of the attack illustrated why it was incumbent on the Muslim community to come forward with information they might have regarding individuals acting alone who might have become radicalised.

He urged the community to do “even more than what they are doing now” sharing information with police.

The Australian revealed today that Shire Ali communicated ­online with Australia’s most ­notorious jihadist, Islamic State terrorist leader Khaled Sharrouf before he drove an on-fire 4WD into Bourke Street last week and stabbed three people. Shire Ali was shot dead by police.

Mr Dutton has spent the past few years pushing laws that would make it easier to remove citizenship from suspected terrorists and deport them, but his efforts have been blocked in the Senate.

He said this morning he was looking at “different ways” to change citizenship laws.

“He (Shire Ali) was just Australian, because he had Australian citizenship,” he told the Seven Network’s Sunrise today.

“There are different ways we can tighten the laws up and we’re looking at that right now. We need to get it through the Senate, and so far we haven’t been able to get the support of Labor and the Greens.”

There's a fresh push to boot extremists from Australia in the wake of the actions of Somali-born Islamic terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali on Bourke Street.@Kochie_Online spoke to Home Affairs Minister @PeterDutton_MP. pic.twitter.com/yro5IChrwg

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) November 11, 2018

The latest attack in Melbourne has also reignited debate over the definition of terrorism and the role of Australian Muslims in stopping terrorism.

Labor backbencher and counter-extremism expert Anne Aly blasted Scott Morrison on the weekend for calling out “Islamic extremism”. But both Bill Shorten and Mr Andrews backed the Prime Minister’s comments.

Mr Dutton said again this morning that the Islamic community must “do more” to stop terrorists.

“We need people to do more and certainly we expect that from the Islamic community,” he said. “By definition, last week’s event demonstrates that had we been able to get a tip-off, we could well had intervened.”

Opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said Labor did stand ready to deport extremists and that the Muslim community was working hard to stop terrorism.

“I’m pretty sure that everyone in the parliament is united in ensuring that the first responsibility of us as public office holders is to keep Australians safe and to do everything in our power to make that happen,” she told Sky News.

“Secondly, we always take our advice from our security agencies.

“I think religious leaders do a great deal now ... these are patriots. These are people who preach that if you’re going to love God, you’ve got to love your country.”