Excerpt from the article by BERNARD KEANE In choosing to be part of this process—which includes, along the way, providing arms to a proscribed terrorist organisation, PKK, which happens to be fighting on “our” side—Tony Abbott has therefore taken a decision that will demonstrably make Australians less safe. Moreover, he has done so primarily for political purposes. Having discovered a competence in international affairs of the kind that eluded Julia Gillard until much later in her prime ministership, Abbott has been keen to use international affairs as a distraction from the domestic difficulties that see his government lagging in the polls. He has also, like John Howard, sought to keep the focus on national security, an area where he knows the Coalition always leads Labor—indeed, part of the theatrics of raising the threat level are to do just that. Problematically, however, Abbott isn’t getting the political benefit: the polls so far show his government continues to struggle and that he isn’t trusted on international affairs. It’s one thing to place the lives of Australians at risk for political purposes, but it’s even worse to do it so badly you fail to get any political benefit. It has been noticeable (and it’s been noticed by Labor) that Abbott is ostentatiously invoking Labor’s bipartisan support on the terrorism issue and repeatedly insisting that he is not using it for political purposes—especially that the decision to lift the threat level is one for security officials. Governments in national security situations can normally rely on the electorate to stand behind them with little convincing—it’s oppositions that have to be careful not to be perceived as being out of step. But in this instance, Abbott occasionally looks as though he’s clinging onto Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for protection against the criticism of politicising terrorism. READ MORE : crikey.au/2014/09/12/abbott-has-made-australia-less-safe-so-hes-right-to-lift-the-threat-level/?wpmp_switcher=mobile
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:28:10 +0000
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