Preventing Terrorism in Australia (or not)

The war in Iraq has not reduced the incidence of terrorism, it has thrown petrol on the fires of national resistance movements in the Middle East and inspired terrorist cells around the world, the recent escalation of attacks on western interests in Indonesia including Bali is a case in point. Similarly the war in Afghanistan has failed to capture Osama bin laden or eliminate terrorist cells in the region. By dismantling Taliban restrictions on the opium trade, a prime funding source for terrorists, Bin Laden and his mates have been able to re-capitalise since the imposition of “democracy” in Afghanistan. The war on terrorism is backfiring.
There are other approaches. The ending of the military phase of the Northern Ireland war of independence was not brought about by bunker busting bombs being dropped on the suburbs of Belfast. Central to the Northern Ireland peace process is the acknowledgement of the legitimate concerns and demands of the terrorists, to negotiate with them and strive for a win-win outcome. Hard-line anti-terrorist positions by previous English governments only succeeded in escalating the level of violence in Northern Ireland and the British mainland.
There is a common perception that Australia has not suffered terrorism. This could not be more wrong. A guerrilla war of independence raged in this country for 150 years before it was finally subdued by the native police and then Aboriginal protection (incarceration) laws. Terrorism is an apt word, for much of what the early guerrillas did was based on infrastructure sabotage and trying to scare the invading colonists back to England, similar to Iraqi resistance strategies today. As the war progressed so did the military tactics of the colonizers and the guerrillas, culminating in the famous Kalkadoon military manoeuvres, which annihilated many police and vigilante squads and successfully defended their country for over a decade until large-scale police reinforcements broke their defences.
I believe the reason an indigenous terrorist movement has not re-developed here in the last fifty years, as it has in nearly every colonized country in the world is because the Aboriginal leadership has focused on non-violent political demands such as the creation of an independent representative body and land rights. . Both the leadership and grass roots Aboriginal Australia had specific demands, at first a hope of success and then eventually seeing hopes manifest. Aboriginal Australia made huge leaps forward in the last half of last century, forcing on A.T.S.I.C. and native title legislation as well as the Royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in custody.
The problem today is A.T.S.I.C. has been abolished and not replaced, native title law has been watered down to the point where its purpose is to extinguish land rights and the incarceration and death in custody rates have escalated since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. The non-violent political strategies appear to have failed.
Aboriginal Australia is still desperate. Entrenched poverty, dramatically inferior health and lifestyles to mainstream Australia, personal and institutional racism, major community dysfunction and lack of infrastructure creates enormous stress on Aboriginal people yet, unlike last century, their is no apparent way forward or strategy for change.
This combination of hopelessness and political vacuum is the very cause of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. The failure of national and international political strategies and a consequent propensity to suicide, especially amongst the young, is the recipe for suicide bombers. The roll back of Aboriginal gains and the continuance of Aboriginal suicide rates, inside and outside of prison, is successfully reproducing the recipe in Australia.
In the recent past we have seen Redfern riot and Palm Island raze a police complex to the ground. Murrundoo Yanner, Geoff Clarke and Gracelyn Smallwood, three national Aboriginal leaders have all public ally warned white Australia of the possibility of hopelessness inspired suicide bombers in retaliation to Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Aboriginal Australia is not the only possible source of terrorism. I don’t think the poor old Muslims are much of a threat. There are many desperate and disturbed individuals, hiding invisibly amongst mainstream society. Timothy McVeigh, the American terrorist responsible for the Oklahoma bombing was a Christian, a patriot, and former servicemen. The most recent wave of American terrorism was “pro-lifers” blowing up abortion clinics and shooting abortionists. Around the world schoolchildren have massacred their schoolmates. Tourists at Port Arthur were gunned down by a white Australian. Mainstream Australia has one of the the highest youth suicide rates in the world and a growing cynicism towards and disconnection from politics. The failure of the A.L.P. to provide any alternative to the philosophy of John Howard over the last decade is a key factor here.
Radical change is needed to bring hope for the most marginalized Australians – Aboriginal Australia, as well as for young Australians of any heritage or class. This is how you stop terrorism re-emerging in Australia.

John Tracey


painting by J.T. "guilt"