Just as in the UK and Germany, the focus is more on accustoming people to a permanent state of war than to dealing with the root causes of jihad terror.
Former police chief Ken Lay reviewed Victoria’s counter-terrorism laws and “said more work was needed to understand the effects Islamophobia has had on the Muslim community.”
Lay did not recommend any work to understand the effects of Islam’s jihad doctrine on the Muslim community.
Why not?
Because that in itself would be “Islamophobic.” In this war, understand the enemy has been stigmatized as “bigotry.” Read about this odd phenomenon and its dangers in my new book Confessions of an Islamophobe. Order your copy here.
“Victoria plans terror law changes as Melbourne’s CBD gets permanent bollards and planters,” ABC.net.au, November 19, 2017 (thanks to Jill):
Children as young as 14 could be held for questioning by Victorian police under proposed law changes, as the Victorian Government responds to a review of the state’s counter-terrorism measures.
The Victorian Government has also revealed new permanent security features are being built in Melbourne’s CBD to prevent terrorist attacks, as part of a $10 million CBD upgrade.
Under the law changes announced this morning, the use of Preventative Detention Orders — when a person is detained without charge, because of fears of an imminent threat — will be extended to 14-year-olds, down from the age of 16.
Suspects under 16 will be able to be held for 36 hours before police are required to apply for an order from the Supreme Court to detain them further.
Under changes announced earlier in the year, adults will be able to be held for up to four days.
Premier Daniel Andrews used the case of radicalised teenager Farhad Mohammad, who shot and killed NSW police accountant Curtis Cheng, to demonstrate why the laws were necessary.
“These are very real issues,” Mr Andrews said.
“We have seen … people as young as 14 posing a significant risk to community safety.
“It would be a terrible failure if to protect the notional civil liberties of a very small number of people we put at risk the safety of a much larger group of people. Indeed, potentially tens of thousands of people.”
The changes were recommended by former police chief Ken Lay and former Supreme Court justice David Harper, who reviewed Victoria’s counter-terrorism laws after a deadly siege in Brighton earlier this year.
It was the second report from the pair and included 26 recommendations in total. The Andrews Government said it accepted all 26 in principle.
Other recommendations include:
Enabling the Police Commissioner to apply for court orders to force people to take part in “disengagement programs” if they display radical or violent behaviour
Talking to the Commonwealth and other states about removing motive as an essential element of the definition of a terrorist act
Working with federal authorities to introduce a new offence for possession of terrorism-related material
Seeking agreement with other states for a national post-sentence supervision scheme for high-risk offendersThe first report, released in September, recommended police be given stronger shoot-to-kill protections.
Mr Lay said the second report also looked at dealing with left and right-wing extremism.
“As we all understand, there’s been a real focus on Islamic extremism in recent times, but the [review] panel saw a gap in the right and left-wing space,” he said.
“To properly protect the community and understand the risks, research needs to be done in that space.”
Mr Lay said more work was needed to understand the effects Islamophobia has had on the Muslim community….