Daniel,show us a better alternative that has the depth of talent and economic credibility than the Coalition, and we will vote for them.

Yes there are many cards that he[John Howard] didn't have to play,however he is a pragmatist and is never confident of victory.

The reality of a terrorist attack particularly for Sydney is very real.The choice of targets is only limited by their imagination.It is only a matter of time.

We need to engauge the Muslim community directly and honestly.The anxiety is real since a bomb laced with an uranium isotope[a dirty bomb]will destroy thousands of lives.

Trinity,
John Howard – Mr Vigilance.

I like that, but I think this following article best describes the vigilance of our present government.

“MILLIONS of dollars have been wasted on more than 70 federal parliamentary inquiries whose recommendations have been ignored, according to new reports. The federal government has not replied on time to a single public inquiry out of the 62 it has ordered in the House of Representatives since December 1998. It has given no reply at all to almost half of them. Nine years ago, the federal government committed to responding to all parliamentary inquiries within three months of the findings being lodged. Since then it has responded on time to only four of 137 Senate inquiries and failed to give a response to 46 Senate inquiries. “http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,15669264,00.html

So the present government is certainly vigilant, and certainly prepared to listen to the concerns, hopes and fears of the Australian people, and then the government will respond accordingly. But unfortunately, they so often respond by not responding.

Instead, this government tends to be rather selective, and tends to choose the issues they want to speak publicly about and pursue.

Its all for the public good of course.

C’mon Arjay, and I was just about to post a compliment to your sensitive contribution in the whales thread.

We all know what dirty bombs do and there are plenty of threads already converted to religion.

Anyone who is worrying that much about attacks would be better to turn off the telly

Hutlen ,I would of thought Sept 11 was laughable and impossible until I saw it.Most Japanese would have thought Nagasagi and Hiroshima was out of the bounds of their imaginatiion until it happened.
Who would have thought of the possibility of Sydney running out of water or even entertained the idea of polarcaps melting ,sea level change,climate change,home grown terrorism etc.A few years ago it was all out of the realm of possibility.

We seem to think that we as so remote from the rest of the world that it won't happen to us.I wish it was so.

I can see that this particular young journalist has a great future awaiting him in the ABC.

Now, it is plain to everyone, that journalists of every political persuation love to claim that someone, somewhere, is up to something insidious. But for a journalist to besmirch the Prime Minister of Australia with accusations that he is capitalising upon the fear of terorism, and that he is even hoping that an Aussie will turn up dead in London, is utterly reprehensible. To any impartial observer, such an opinion expressed in a newspaper is offensive and propagandistic, and it detracts from the credibility of the press.

It is claear that certain people in the media are disappointed that John Howard keeps winning elections. These media people are getting a bit silly in their explanations of why this is so. The latest bit of nonesence is that John Howard is a skillfull manipulator of public opinion. It never sems to occur to left wing journo's that people vote for John Howard because they prefer his policies over those of the opposition.

The more that journalists put forward such nonesence while at the same time making their political preference for the ALP well known, the more the public will distrust journalists who write anti Howard articles.

I luv Johnny howard
I fink he is me mate
I luv the way he tells a fib
And fosters fear and hate.

An ID card is the way to go
And terror is his thunda
History will remember him
As the A….hole from down unda