good point plantagenet about which laws todays arrests occured under, and if as you speculate they involved the posession or the attempt to aquire materials for an attack then they were probably arrested under the same laws as wille bridgite, so it seems our police are doing a fair job with them.

it also seems they were under survailence for some 3 yrs, and im assuming they were arrested at a critical point of their mobilisation, which would impply that the surveilince teams were aware of their timeline.
the question is for the new laws, which seem to have a heavy focus on verbal or written planning or discussion, is that if these suspects had been arrested earlier at the begining of the planning stage, would the plot really have been foiled? if you arrest everyone as soon as a plan is mentioned is it possible that you miss the ones who are not talking, but rather acting? i dunno, just speculating.

another point on the brazilian. he was as plantagenet pointed out, sitting on the train at the time of his execution. it is also debateable wether he was actually challenged by police, witnesses suggest he ran for the train and was completely unaware that he was being followed. i guess we wait for the video, if it still exists, to be leaked.

and on the comment about the 'rights of the few'. i oppose these laws for the rights of all australian citizens.

I have no problems with the laws, labeling authoritarian is a bit over the top, I wonder what you would label the Islamic Fundamentalist’s law, “Conservative”.?
Perhaps a 2 month trip to Saudi Arabia is on the cards to study authoritarianism in the flesh, then compare the two dictatorships !Saudi and Australia. That would be an interesting task, Go on, toddle off.
Men in white coats need to pay some a visit. That wicked John Howard has done it again. Dam those Left Authoritarian Dictators. Hmmmm interesting! Straight Jacket and rubber room Jargon.
And while you are there in Saudi, check out there Industrial relations. "IR" and compare John Howard's, we might need some changes.You might even fall in love with the place and not come back to Australia ,it is that bad now in my home land "Australia" so sad?

^^^

*in redneck voice*

"If you don't like it... then you can geeeeet out!"

All-, just because other countries have horrid systems, does not mean that we should ignore baby steps in that direction from our country. Yes, these laws will not affect the majority. Yes, they are less draconian than the former USSR or current day Saudi Arabia. Does that make them benign? NO. Should we accept everything our government does, just because it was legitmately elected? NO.

It is utterly foolish to say "oh well, life sucks elsewhere, therefore we shouldn't complain when people decide to hack away at our basic values and insitutions, 'cos its still better than somewhere else".

Things like locking people up for two weeks without charging them, or allowing them to tell anybody why (try explaining that to the boss), just because they happen to have been unlucky enough to be the friend, or relative, or neighbour of a nutbag are just wrong. And we should not stand by and say that it is okay just because the government says so.

Laurie,
Your point is valid, Personally , I would like the Government to remove all the laws and U N treaties, and wind things back 30 odd years , but , will” Never happen”.
I would expect the racial vilification and religious vilification laws repealed, etc. These laws are designed for a specific purpose, and it is not your freedom in mind.
I absolute die of laughter when you read garbage such as this.
Compared to the System of law the narrator and quite a few others would have you under, It would make Stalin and Lenin look like school kids. I kid you not.
We live in a different world, I do not like it, many do not like it, Not many questions on how we got to this point of time and the difficulties we face, Simply put, the wingers created this mess in years gone by, now My generation and future generations have to survive, Don’t know your age, but let me tell you, This is not the Australia I grew up in, nor my or many of our ancestors had left us.
The question should be who destroyed Australia and trashed it. Answer: Whitlam started it, Fraser accelerated its decline, and Hawk capped it, Keating Cooked and added the finishing touches . So what we have left is a skeleton of a nation out of control, that is what I fear for my Children and yours. Good luck.

Oh gawd. This must be the fourth or fifth article by some hand wringing trendy lefty journo who loves Multiculturalism but is aghast at it's consequences.

Even as Paris burns from French idiocy in letting millions of Muslims invade their country, Gary Brown simply whistles and pretends not to notice the link between Islam and terrorism. All he can do is whinge about the necessity of implementing onerous laws to combat it.

One can only hope that the first Islamic terrorist bomb which detonates in an Australian city will be in some favourite journalistic watering hole. It might get some trendy lefty Shiite journos away from their inbred thinking and out into the fresh air where they could have a look around at the real world.