The recent terrorist outrage in Melbourne, as well as the too-frequent rampages by immigrant criminal gangs in that city, will remind Australians that most of the problems confronting the nation are, if not created by the political class, made significantly worse by them.

The terrorist threat will not be answered by measures such as taxpayers being required to spend an extraordinary $130 million on an ugly fence around the already very well protected Federal Parliament, even if by American standards the politicians are not often there. They clearly need a wakeup call; they should come back now from their extended leave to deal with this real issue.

What must first be changed is the serious mismanagement by politicians of the power to administer immigration specifically entrusted to them under the Constitution ‘for the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth’. This power has been administered by both sides with such gross negligence that not only the long-term welfare dependent but also criminal elements and terrorists have been welcomed into the bosom of the nation, showered with welfare and even had our citizenship conferred on them.  This must stop.

Decades ago, immigrants were carefully chosen with the expectation that they would assimilate and contribute to the Commonwealth as loyal Australians. Vast numbers were honoured to swear the oath of allegiance, with Australians welcoming them and treating them as equals. There was little discrimination by old Australians, notwithstanding subsequent untruths invented by extremists with an agenda to destroy our institutions and our values.

Propelled by the lie that Australians were practising serious discrimination against immigrants, a multicultural myth was gradually imposed, based on a proposition so ridiculous that its falsity is glaringly obvious to all but the elites. This is that all cultures are equal and that our extraordinarily successful and advanced Australian culture is not only one of these, but implicitly inferior. The falsity of this is demonstrated by reference to just one imported cultural practice: female genital mutilation. And that is only one example; there are many more.  The fact is that the pillars of our nation have made us one of the most advanced cultures in the world. Indeed, that is why so many seek to come here.

If undermining this were not enough, some delinquent politicians have even used immigration for political purposes to acquire votes, with one minister actually losing his portfolio when he had decided, to his party’s possible electoral disadvantage, that the cleric Sheik Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly merited deportation.

In the meantime, as with just about every other irrational neo-Marxist doctrine, politicians across the spectrum gradually succumbed to the pressure from the usual inner-city elites with whom they mix and the commentariat from whom they receive guidance to declare themselves avid multiculturalists. Soon citizenship would be being delivered like confetti at a wedding, with the solemn oath of allegiance abolished.

Putting aside the welfare dependent immigrants, criminal gangs and the inability of the infrastructure in Sydney and Melbourne to cope with the size of the annual intake, the most serious issue in this area remains the entry and the re-entry of terrorists.

If the politicians had exercised normal prudent care and responsibility over the years, such as the rank and file would have exercised, we would not be suffering from the problem we have today.  It is no excuse to hide behind the fact that European and American governments (at least those before President Trump ’s administration) have often been just as negligent or even worse. Politicians have a duty to Australians, including indeed especially to those not yet born.

As to the recent Melbourne outrage, it is surely appropriate to call a spade a spade. When the Afghan refugee and naturalised Australian Saheed Noori drove a Suzuki SUV into 18 pedestrians crossing Flinders Street in the heart of Melbourne and is reported to have attributed this at least in part to the mistreatment of Muslims, this must have been an act of terrorism, pure and simple. (Another man with a full beard and three knives in his backpack was also arrested after filming the outrage. But the authorities said they believed he was not connected with the incident, which curiously, they could not, at the time of writing, connect to terrorism).

10-point plan to fight the terrorist war

I have argued here previously that along with many Western countries, we are at war and that the enemy is Islamic terrorism.  It matters not one jot that the terrorist is operating under instructions, with others or alone. The politicians have created this problem at least in part by their conversion to that vacuous doctrine of multiculturalism, which results in the weakening of the expectations and requirements concerning the entry of immigrants. This has not only allowed or even encouraged immigrants to enter our nation still strongly attached to alien and unassimilated cultures. This has resulted in a minority engaging in terrorist acts or being sympathetic to them, producing in some instances terrorist progeny.  In that earlier piece, I proposed a ten-point plan to combat terrorism. A revised version follows.

• First, politicians must immediately ensure the problem they and their predecessors created is not repeated. If they cannot do this they should stand aside for others who can. Politicians must from this time forward only admit those immigrants who can positively demonstrate they will contribute to the nation and become loyal Australians, ideally of the calibre of the heroes who intervened during the Melbourne terrorist incident, who regularly save lives and who defend the nation.
• Second, citizenship should be granted only when the community can be satisfied that the applicant is a loyal contributor to the nation. The publicly sworn oath of allegiance should be restored, with a solemn affirmation for non-believers.
• Third, jihadist fighters should be denied any right to return to Australia. Those who are dual citizens or are found likely to be entitled to another citizenship should be stripped of their Australian citizenship. Arguments that they may become stateless should not be entertained.
• Fourth, we should encourage the Americans to keep Guantánamo Bay open for the detention of captured jihadists.
• Fifth, given the way the pendulum in the criminal justice system has generally been moved away from protecting the victims of crime, we should ensure that intelligence evidence is admissible in relevant proceedings. Defences or partial defences based on ‘diminished responsibility’ or ‘substantial impairment‘ due to drugs, alcohol, the alleged psychological damage from discrimination etc. should not be allowed.  On conviction, it is crucial that terrorists be kept in remote separate prisons, so they cannot infect other prisoners.
• Sixth, to protect the civil population during this war, those reasonably believed likely to engage in terrorist acts or to lend support to them should also be liable to internment.
• Seventh, the reintroduction of the death penalty in relation to terrorism during this war should be the subject of a national debate. Federal legislation introduced in 2010, based on a UN treaty, which tries to prevent the states from re-introducing this penalty is against the original intention of the constitution and should, therefore, be repealed.
• Eighth, the existence of no-go areas must never be tolerated.
• Ninth, the subsidy of terrorism through foreign aid, welfare, grants and what is effectively a halal tax or through the milking of school funds should end. Only schools committed to the Australian system and values should be subsidised or indeed permitted.
• Tenth, the integrity of the processes of internment, denial of entry and the stripping of citizenship during this war should be ensured through the empanelling of federal grand juries and also the creation of a special defence court. [The revival of the old English institution, the grand jury, to be used especially in camera hearings in lieu of discredited organisations like ICAC and also for preliminary hearings in criminal proceedings has been proposed here and in the book I authored with Jai Martinkovits, Give Us Back Our Country.]

Above all, what is essential is that the politicians accept that this is a war and resolve to fight it as such.

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