It's a pity that the author packed up so many other elements of her political convictions into the same article - which is bound to divert the readers' attention from the main and current topic of the article and alienate those of opposing political persuasions from the issue at hand.

Yes, the Australian regime utilises fear - disproportional fear, in order to control the populace.

No, most of us, myself included, are not afraid of terror, which in Australia is a tiny and minor issue - we are much more afraid of what the government is going to do in response.

I will not be surprised to find that it was the government itself that instigated that terror-attempt, working behind the scenes to help radicalise those Muslims and encourage them to build a device to blow up a plane. Why? Because under the guise of "fighting terrorism" it gets more powers and control over ordinary Australian passengers, for reasons far removed from terror itself.

The biggest terrorist in Australia is government.
Its oppression in all walks of life, made and continues to make more people suffer than all other criminals taken together, terrorists included.

The author believes that the Australian government has far more power than it has and that it can control all manner of things, including external events, which it cannot.

It would be the very rare politician who wouldn't like being able to wear her heart on her sleeve as the author does and to wave a magic wand. The left presume to always know what is best for everyone, regardless. To sally forth and rescue fish and place them softly in trees, wrapped in cotton wool and where they cannot possibly drown. Hey, the government can set up sprinklers and hand feed them, right? Off now to force government to re-set the sun so the solar panels work for those peak load hours.

Tonight on The Box some well-groomed and prosperous celebrity journalist -
great gig, a sinecure and gold-plated retirement (from a nice Aunty) - will be at her adversarial sharpest and rudest and trying to humiliate some (understandably) defensive politician. It is the modern day Colosseum and the daily dumbed-down entertainment of bear baiting, where the guest is the bear.

We need more study of civics all of the way through our education, along with mindfulness, philosophy and better recognition of the cognitive errors that will affect our thinking regardless of our best efforts.

The naivety of this author is extraordinary. Certainly we always need to be concerned about expansion of government power but to say that internment or people who come from enemy countries is wrong is plainly stupid. Anyone who knows anything about war knows that secrecy is vital to success and to keeping both soldiers and civilians alive. It only takes one person to breach that secrecy to cost the lives of thousands or lose the war. Imagine us being at war with China today. To claim that not one single Chinese Australian may be loyal to China would simply be a fantasy.

Lyn: A very appropriate surname, given how much you try to bend the truth and the facts?

Your take is a fascinating as the risible rubbish and patent propaganda of (the enemy within) traditional fifth columnists?

The miscreants arrested, were involved, by all accounts, knowingly or unknowingly, in a nefarious plot, with evidence based charges laid?

And given what the "plotters" apparently succeeded in actually doing? Intensely illuminating evidence, that you don't have to be a slack lip, dribbling moron with an IQ, roughly the equivalent of the ambient temperature? To try this stuff on, but it has to help!

But particularly if you can be radicalized by mad dog rabid rapist and mommy butchering/baby buggering bastards on a one way journey to hell and desperate for company!

Ambivalence, cognitive dissonance? More like a disassembled rambling rhetorical response, as a very feeble attempt to defend the indefensible/forgive the unforgivable/excuse the inexcusable!

If these airheads had succeeded? By all accounts, they would have severely damaged a plane, then poisoned all the passengers with noxious gas!?

Preferably before they were killed by the sudden stop at the bottom!?

What? killing them just once not enough? And a plane falling out of the sky, not enough terror?

These mouth frothers need to be permanently exiled along with the smiling, affable, alleged intellectuals, who try to defend/excuse them and their intended actions.

An abandoned Devil's Island would do very nicely as a transit station/waiting room, for hellbound servants of Satan!
Alan B.

What a naïve child you are.
Facts. :-
Mohammed "married" his youngest wife Aisha when she was six and "consummated" the "marriage" when she was nine. (It turns my stomach to use the terms " marriage" and " consummate" when the subject is a 6 year then 9 year old.)
He conquered a tribe of Jews, beheaded all adult males and sold all woman and children into slavery.(Source of those facts:- the Arabic texts- the Hadiths)
In the Koran 98.1 "The unbeliever among the people of the Book (ie. Christians) and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures"

Koran 4.34:- "Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other and because they spend their wealth to maintain them."

Muslims are people who follow the teachings of that misogynist, paedophile war criminal and therefore set their moral standards on such teaching. If you do not fear such people you are mentally challenged.

Dear Old Man,

«Muslims are people who follow the teachings of that misogynist, paedophile war criminal»

That's only if you believe those stupid stories of the Hadith and its libel against the innocent Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

«If you do not fear such people you are mentally challenged»

If you have done nothing wrong yourself, then you need not fear anything.
That said, I am not a saint and so I do fear those exteremists among the Muslims who take such "teachings" literally.
I fear them a little, but I fear even more the government's reactions, it's "immune response" and the resulting assaults against ordinary citizens.