Well, it has been over a week now since this paper was released, so I guess it has to go into 'general discussion' instead of 'news'. I am surprised that there has been no discussion on OLO to date, as it is an important document.

If anyone has not read it, here is the link.

http://www.dpmc.gov.au/publications/counter_terrorism/docs/counter-terrorism_white_paper.pdf

There also has been a few columists in the MSM making comments.

Surely, some posters must have opinions and it would be interesting to see what they are.

Dear Banjo,

I read the Government's propsoals and
I see nothing wrong with what they intend
doing. I realize that some people will
complain about "invasions of privacy" issues,
however we have to look at the bigger picture -
if this will help make Australia a safer place,
then we can't really complain.

Foxy makes a good point about safety and protection. The White Paper only outlines the border protection and national securiyt policy but does not go into very much detail about the changes to legislation.

Some of the legal changes impinge on some longly held rights and beliefs about police detainment and issues like conspiracy to commit a crime.

If someone is overheard saying they are going to kill their wife but then change their mind and no crime is committed, is that still a crime? Should they be arrested and jailed? These are complicated issues even when terrorism is not involved.

The same goes for someone overhearing a terrorist plot or overhearing a group of Muslims saying how much they hate infidel Aussies and they would love to blow them up. We don't like hearing this but it is not a crime if the act is not carried out. How much weight would something like this carry in a Court? Some racist Aussies might say the same about some ethnic groups.

It is not a crime to hate only to cause harm to those you hate.

It is these issues that need some more fine tuning. It is a difficult issue because overhearing the planning of any criminal act should be reported to the authorities and is doubtless a cause for concern. The difficulty is distinguishing between intent and macho bravado.

Dear Pelly,

Thanks for being so diplomatic.

The points you raise are indeed valid.

It never occurred to me to look at things
from that point of view - my main concern
was safety. But of course - you're right.
These are issues that need to be considered.

In another thread here, in this section, there has been praise for a Pakistani scholar for issuing a fatwa on terrorism. I join that praise and hope to see more such action and words.

In the background to the above, we recently had the sentencing of some that were planning terrorist action. Following this there was a meeting of some 30 prominant muslims who claimed that there was insufficient evidence to convict these people, even though our courts found there was,including stockpiles of ammunition and materials to make explosives. Outside that meeting there was agroup of young males, with raised fists, condeming the convictions and calling ASIO 'dogs'. We now have 20-30 in jail for terrorist planning.

Wouldn't it have been nice if the 30 prominant muslims had issued a statement condemming terrorism, along the lines of their Pakistani colleague. Then we may have been getting somewhere.

What I find strange about this White Paper is that the government states that the main terror threat is from 'home grown' muslims, but increases airport security and intelligence in relation to boat people coming here illegally.

Hey fellas, you said the threat was 'home grown' which means the potential terrorists are here now. England also has had problems with home grown terrorists and their targets were not planes, nor was Bali.

Just what is to be done about the 'home grown' problem, which the government admits the extent of this is directly related to the number of muslims in our community.

It seems to me that if we stopped further immigration of muslims we would be minimizing the threat. But the white paper does not consider that, even though we accept about 28000 new muslim migrants each year and it is the kids of these migrants that pose the threat.

So it appears that the government is prepared to accept increased risk of terrorist action here in Aus, without doing anything about it. As the PM said "We have to live with it"