Terror alert to have little impact at Victorian election

That terror attacks like the one in Melbourne this month are so rare is a tribute to our security forces.

Victorian Liberal leader Minister Matthew Guy leads Prime Minister Scott Morrison in laying tributes after the Bourke Street attack in Melbourne earlier this month. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s security agencies do not receive anywhere near the praise they deserve for keeping us safe. The record here for terrorist attacks is free of mass slaughter.

Plot after plot has been nipped in the bud. So much grief and tragedy has been avoided despite the fact that ASIO claims it would need to increase its staff by 9000 if any ­attempt was actually made to keep eyes on everyone in this country who is, or is in the process of being, radicalised. When a lone wolf strikes, as happened in Melbourne 10 days ago, it is incredibly difficult to stop.

It was disappointing to see this incident politicised for personal gain. Matthew Guy is struggling to get on top of Daniel Andrews and leapt on to weaknesses in the bail system in Victoria. Sadly, in almost every state you find complaints that the magistracy often fails to represent true community outrage.

It staggers me that the number of people on bail committing another crime continues to skyrocket. Premiers and state governments procrastinate and seem utterly unable to take a real stand and stop the rot. In Victoria, Guy has seemingly had plenty to work with but just can’t seem to ping systemic failures on the Premier.

That attacks like the one in Melbourne are so rare is a tribute to our security forces. It also seems that Islamic State, here and overseas, is running out of organis­ational puff. When it was hunted out of its last strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the dream of the caliphate had to fade. Now the hunting continues. In France, Belgium and Britain, there are tens of thousands on watchlists, and apart from the odd flurry, the number of attacks in Europe has diminished.

Scott Morrison did not hold back in demanding that Australia’s Muslims should take a harder line on preventing radicalisation. On this occasion at least, you couldn’t blame the community, which retorted that the ­security forces, the police and the legal ­establishment in general had failed to do their job.

Andrews has said little about the incident but he knows that voters do not see him as responsible for yet another senseless death.

It would appear now that the only way the Liberals can win this election would be a last-minute ­intervention by the gendarmerie. The “red shirt” scandal rears its ugly head from time to time as do other allegations of falsely claiming taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes.

Such an intervention seems unlikely, and the march to victory of the Labor government looks set for success.