‘Civil service sentences’ skirt around Islamist threats

It was entirely appropriate that ASIO chief Mike Burgess accompanied Anthony Albanese in announcing the latest terrorism alert, but it is regrettable that his language was so compromised (“PM’s terror alert undercut by weasel words and feeble politics”, 6/8).

Greg Sheridan is quick to point out the “hangdog quality of civil service sentences” in Burgess’s address.

Perhaps this is the price for readmission into the national security committee, from which the ASIO chief, Australian Secret Intelligence Service and the Signals Directorate should never have been excluded.

It is cringe-worthy to hear Burgess skirting around the reality that terrorist threats come predominantly from Islamist sources and joining in the government’s pretence that Islamophobia looms as large as anti-Semitism in Australia.

However, Sheridan is unequivocal in condemning the appointment of Tony Burke as Home Affairs Minister, considering his worse than muted response to October 7.

Alongside the immigration portfolio that he also holds, this appointment is nothing short of a security risk.

John Morrissey, Hawthorn, Vic

Greg Sheridan, in his latest article in The Australian, hits quite a few nails on the head. The main one relates to the indisputable fact that the Albanese government is putting electoral politics ahead of the security of Australia. The government’s reticence to call out Islamist extremism is undoubtedly linked to the coming election and its efforts to shore up seats with large Muslim populations.

Sheridan poignantly raises the absurdity of both the appointment of Tony Burke to home affairs and his absence at the address given by Mike Burgess, who for all his good points had been forced to sing from the government’s hymn sheet. The message was this – the words came from the government’s speech writers.

The Albanese government needs to realise that by denying the threat of Muslim extremism, Islamophobia will unfortunately become as prevalent as the government keeps on insisting that it is now.

Compared with anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity, Islamophobia at this point in time is just a drop in the ocean.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

At Monday’s media conference announcing ASIO boss Mike Burgess had lifted the national terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, Anthony Albanese stressed that “words matter” (“Words matter but they must say something”, 6/8). Yes indeed.

Which is why the chant “From the river to the sea” should have been recognised and acknowledged immediately for what it is – if not a damning anti-Semitic call to genocide, then at the least its ugly sibling, so-called ethnic cleansing.

Instead of attempting to sanitise the Sydney Opera House mob’s chant of “Gas the Jews” to a barely less threatening “Where’s the Jews?”, such incendiary speech should have been acted on immediately rather than downplayed as if horrified opposition to it were some sort of hard-of-hearing, hysterical over-reaction.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East, Vic

The Prime Minister has a point (“Greens’ divisive rhetoric is fuelling domestic terror threat: PM”, 6/8), but to me the biggest factor by far is his failure, along with premiers, to take action against lawbreaking, hate-filled protesters and preachers defying our norms of civilised behaviour and chanting anti-Jewish slogans.

Those who broke the law should have been prosecuted immediately and the rest forcibly told their behaviour was unacceptable in secular, democratic Australia. The noisy critics of our past and present need to stop acting like petulant children who can’t get their own way and, for a change, look for the good that has attracted people from all around the world to come here.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

Peter Jennings quotes Mike Burgess concerning the threats posed by anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: “It’s kind of, almost, equal treatment, not quite, but almost equal treatment.”

That sounds like something Sir Humphrey Appleby would have written for prime minister Jim Hacker to use in a speech. In fact, Mr Burgess might do very well if he were to pursue a political car eer.

David Morrison, Springwood, NSW