THE risk of terror attacks on Australian soil, including on public transport networks in capital cities, is significantly increased because the Gillard government downplayed a report on the dangers posed by returning home-grown jihadists.
The blunt assessment was issued yesterday by Anthony Whealy QC, the former judge who chaired a 2013 counter-terrorism review and who sentenced Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf to five years’ jail.
He said an attack on a major railway station, such as Sydney’s Wynyard, would not take “a criminal mastermind” to engineer but could kill hundreds.
Mr Whealy, who chaired the Council of Australian Governments committee’s review of counter-terrorism legislation, said that when the report warning of serious attacks in Australia was presented to the Gillard government in March last year, it was held for two months and then quietly tabled on budget night in May.
His warning came as Tony Abbott revealed the government was considering tougher laws that could reverse the onus of proof for those returning from foreign battlefields, forcing them to explain why they had been in areas such as Syria and Iraq.
The possible new laws would apply to Sharrouf and fellow western Sydney man Mohamed Elomar, who have been fighting with the banned terror group the Islamic State and are the subject of Australian Federal Police arrest warrants.
Elomar and Sharrouf have posted boasts and explicit pictures on social media, including with the bodies and severed heads of enemy fighters.
Sharrouf and Elomar’s uncle Mohamed were both jailed for their roles in the 2005 Pendennis plot, Australia’s largest terror conspiracy, which led to 18 men being convicted for conspiring to attack targets in Sydney and Melbourne.
Mr Whealy said that despite the fact Sharrouf was “a braggart and self-delusional ... that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous”.
“You don’t have to be a criminal mastermind to be dangerous if you can just strap a bomb to your back and wander down to Wynyard station and blow yourself and 200 passengers up,” he said.
Signalling a re-examination of the onus-of-proof provisions, the Prime Minister said the “first priority” of the government was to protect Australians.
“We do not want people who have radicalised and militarised to be coming back to this country, not only with a message of hate but with the knowledge and the insights that might enable them to bring some of the horrors of the Middle East back to our country,” Mr Abbott said.
He said the government would have “more to say” on the matter in coming days.
“We are determined to ensure that we do everything we reasonably can, consistent with our traditional principles of justice and freedom, to keep our community safe,” he said.
Bill Shorten warned of a risk to civil liberties if the onus of proof was reversed and said not everyone going to the Middle East should be demonised.
“There is no doubt that there is some evidence that some Australians are engaging in illegal behaviour, violent behaviour, overseas,” the Opposition Leader said. “That is completely, completely, totally unacceptable. But we just need to make sure we’re doing all of this national security, keeping a weather eye on people’s civil rights.”
Earlier, Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the reversal of the onus of proof might have a “risk” ranking system so that those who had been in Syria would have to explain their actions.
Mr Whealy’s 2013 report made it clear there was “a real risk that Australian citizens presently undergoing training overseas with extremist groups might return to Australia with extremist convictions or terrorist capability, posing a threat that those persons or their associates may consider carrying out some form of serious terrorist activity”.
He said current attempts to revisit the legislation could have begun earlier had the review been given more immediate attention.
“The response from the previous government you would have to say was slow,’’ Mr Whealy said. “The present government is attempting to act very rapidly to meet the threat of extremism coming back into this country. It could have been done earlier, there’s no doubt about it, but I’m pleased that they’re moving now.”
Mr Whealy said there were often similarities in the backgrounds of young men such as Sharrouf, who grew up in Australia and were drawn to religious fanaticism and laterterrorism. Often they began with petty crime and illicit drugs. Sharrouf barely made it to Year 9 when he was expelled from school for violent conduct. He had a long history of minor criminality in the Children’s Court and, as an adult, had a string of minor offences.
He worked occasionally as a labourer in the building industry, but generally lived on the disability support pension. He was arrested in November 2005 on charges relating to buying a large number of batteries and clocks from a supermarket in Chullora.
He was not smart enough to be branded a criminal mastermind, Mr Whealy said.
“He’s of low intelligence — that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous, but don’t blow him up to be the mastermind of criminal conspiracies and extremist plots. He’s not smart enough. His boasting is very typical of someone with a low intellect and someone who doesn’t have much perception of himself at all.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-ignored-threat-of-homegrown-jihadists-says-fo...
