I do agree that if a terrorist or anyone else is holding people hostage and there is no talking them out, and there is considerable belief that they aim to kill innocent people, then the police should try to kill them.

However, it appears that this guy Monis told the negotiators he was wearing a bomb, so that was a bit of a problem in that if they killed him, more hostages might die. In the end they had no choice of course, but it wasn't Monis's gun that killed the female lawyer, it was police bullets.
I am not sure any of us can really say what we would have done if we were police in that situation.

Dear Suse,

Of course, this is a difficult situation which requires difficult professional decisions, some of which we may never know whether they were right or wrong. However, the issue at hand is about "rights" rather than about technical/operational procedures.

So how exactly are the police supposed to tell if monis was a terrorist or just a madman? Its easy with hindsight to judge and criticise.

How many monis sieges have there been compared to your standard domestic or nutter sieges? Do crazy people or grief maddened family members deserve to die for their moment of madness? Did we secretly bring back capital punishment?

Are you people so scared by a few bombings/killings that you would have the police become executioners.
No trial. No Judge. No jury. No death penalty law. No check for mental illness. Just bang bang. Oops sorry about that.

One last thing.
If your rights are not for everyone then they are not rights they are just privileges!

Fox, "There are laws that we in this country are all expected
to abide by. These are the laws enacted by the Parliament
under the Australian Constitution"

Hot damn, but you might be onto something there.

That must be what is wrong with France, Germany and Sweden (now the rape capital of the world!). If only they had laws against raising mayhem, rape and murder they wouldn't be experiencing any problems, eh what?

Suseonline,

You are consistent in your 'open door' immigration that would allow anyone in and hope to address the problems and costs later.

The rapes of Sweden and the terrorism of France are minor prices to pay for that diversity, you'd say.

Of course your 'endless-diversity-that Australia-is-obliged-to-have' is driven by your hatred of 'whites' and the 'white' system of government and traditions inherited from the UK. The cultural cringe of leftists, but extreme in your case.

The wildly enthusiastic immigration policies of successive federal governments aimed at building a 'Big Australia' at a reckless speed have been challenged for years by the State Premiers, Labor Premiers especially and for good reasons. As well, the electorate has made it clear that the feds' mantra 'all growth is good' and the aim of a 'Big Australia, NOW!' are unacceptable.

There is no doubt that over-enthusiastic immigration numbers and the diversity that rules (and is not OK) are at odds with the wishes of the public, including many past migrants. Preferencing migrants from strongly fundamentalist countries and above migrants from other countries who bring useful skills and assimilate readily is a real deal breaker as far as the public are concerned.

If Labor, Greens and Turnbull's LNP don't realise they have all been put on notice, they can expect to be tipped out of Canberra in increasing numbers.

Suze, the only reason Man Manus was even there was due to systemic failures in our legal system. Once again, the feather duster approach saw him freed on several occasions to do more harm.

Foxy, we have a few rouge dog trainers, so the entire industry gets shut down in NSW. We saw footage of what turned out to be staged footage of cruelty to cattle, and the entire live export industry was shut down.

We know the more Muslims we let in the greater the risk of terrorism, so why are you defending their acceptance on a innocent until proven guilty basis. I'm sorry, but enough is enough, we must shut this whole thing down and clean up what's here first before we allow more potentials in. If ever.

Do you seriously believe that if the time comes where Muslims must choose between our laws and theirs, that they will ALL choose ours.

As a previous poster said, they are in jail now, and would be so as heroes to their cause, and there is little doubt that once they are let out they will reoffend, simply because of the religion/faith they follow. In fact, unless they withdraw their Muslim beliefs I don't think they should ever be released. Al least not to roam free in this country anyway.

As for sending them home, if they cant return home, tough!, they should have considered that before bringing their garbage here in the first place.

I see Donald Trump is gaining momentum. Big changes in the wind.

Mikk...So how exactly are the police supposed to tell if monis was a terrorist or just a madman? Its easy with hindsight to judge and criticise.

Both should be shot on sight because no one has the right to inflict that sort of suffering to others. Besides, the ISIS flag was a huge giveaway.

If we adopt a zero tolerance toward offenders taking hostages, sicko's of terrorists, things will change very quickly.