The Turnbull government is spending $8 million advertising the National Security Hotline. It asks us to speak up if something doesn’t add up:
Interestingly, the same mob have spent almost double that, about $15 million, on ‘deradicalisation’ programs that ‘deradicalise’ by promoting Islam (click for details).
Something just doesn’t add up here.
In fact, nothing adds up. So I’ll take the government’s advice and speak up.
Let’s start with the National Security Hotline.
The last time the National Security Hotline received this much attention was just after the Lindt Café terrorist attack. It was the hotline that 18 Australians rang to warn the ‘authorities’ that Man Haron Monis was up to no good. They did this just days before he strolled into Martin Place with a shotgun.
So, it seems that the government has no need to spend money telling Australians to ring the National Security Hotline. We already do this. The problem is not on ‘our’ end of the hotline. It’s on the government side where things stuff up.
As such, a cynic might say that Malcolm Turnbull’s $8 million advertising splash on the National Security Hotline between now and the election is supposed to make us feel safe rather than make us be safe. There’s a big difference between those two concepts.
Remember, the calls to the National Security Hotline were made by security ‘amateurs’. The ‘professionals’ took the calls and promptly decided that nothing should be done. The reporting spike was ignored and shortly thereafter Sydney’s CDB was shutdown and two Australians were shot down.
A few weeks later the Martin Place Siege Joint Commonwealth – New South Wales review was issued. It said this about the warnings provided just days before Monis’ attack on 15 December, 2014:
18 of the calls and emails [about Monis] to the [National Security Hotline] were received between 9 December 2014 and 12 December 2014.
It also said this about the amount of information the government had on Monis:
Monis was, in fact, well known to authorities: he had been investigated a number of times and successfully prosecuted on 12 charges. He had met police and ASIO representatives on numerous occasions and these, along with other government agencies, held hundreds of thousands of pages of information on him.
The report also stated:
[Monis] was the subject of thorough assessments by ASIO, the AFP and NSW Police Force which had continuously determined that he was not of national security concern.
And then it said this:
Overall, the Review has found that the judgments made by government agencies were reasonable and that the information that should have been available to decision makers was available.
The government should take the $8 million it is using to advertise the National Security Hotline and instead investigate exactly how it is possible that our intelligence and security agencies managed to accrue more than 100,000 pages of reporting on this terrorist and still determine that it was ‘reasonable’ to ‘judge’ that Man Haron Monis was not a security concern.
After all, that is either an awful lot of coincidental reporting on a guy who just randomly snapped on 15 December 2014. Or, much more likely, it is an awful lot of assessments that came to the wrong conclusion about Monis. Indeed, one can hardly be surprised that the Islamic State’s Australian poster boy had also previously been found guilty of harassing the families of Australian Diggers slain in Afghanistan. There’s a pattern here that even Blind Freddy can see. And then there’s the charge of murder that he was also facing…
Of course, the difference between feeling safe and being safe is the difference between perception and reality.
Under Malcolm Turnbull, perception is more important than reality. I suppose that’s why he likes to claim that Islam is great. That’s all about perception and nothing about reality:
I suppose it’s also why the webpage promoting the advertising blitz for the National Security Hotline links to the Turnbull government’s ‘Living Safe Together’ website.
‘Living Safe Together’ is the politically-correct way of saying, ‘The $15 million government program that ‘deradicalises’ Islamic terrorists by promoting Islam.’
The fruits of this program were on display for all to see on Anzac Day: a 15 year old boy in ‘deradicalisation’ since May 2015 was arrested after planning to attack the ‘kaffir’ (that’s us) while we remembered those who had fallen defending our freedom.
The Living Safe Together website is truly what makes this nation great. It links to government-funded programs calling for local councils to become ‘Refugee Welcome Zones’. And it also has other links.
Like this one from the Living Safe Together webpage to a project run by the Islamic Council of Queensland that aims to:
“develop counter narrative messages to challenge Islamic militancy propaganda through the use of guest speakers and workshops involving academics, Queensland Police and Imams”.
The Turnbull government’s ‘Living Safe Together’ program has cost taxpayers about $15 million.
When you click on it, you get this:
The page displayed when you click on the Islamic Council of Queensland’s ‘deradicalisation’ project listed on the Turnbull government’s ‘Living Safe Together’ webpage.
To be truthful, I’m really not surprised.
Of course, the Living Safe Together webpage also features a lovely post from the Grand Mufti. I’m not sure why. The words ‘living’, ‘safe’ and ‘together’ should not grace the same webpage as a man who defends Hizb ut Tahrir and who fronts an organisation that thinks laws prohibiting the advocation of terrorism will infringe the free speech of Islamic preachers.
And don’t just take my word for it. Take the word of the Australian National Imams Council. You can read their submission opposing these laws here. I think this is the best bit of all:
We are therefore concerned that the proposal has serious implications on free speech and will have a chilling effect on legitimate religious and political debate. This provision is of particular concern to preachers who spend a large proportion of their time teaching and advocating on social justice issues.
Anyway, Malcolm Turnbull might want to spend $8 million advertising the National Security Hotline to make us all feel safer as the election approaches. But I’d feel a lot safer it he simply asked the Islamic community to pay back the $15 million or thereabouts the Commonwealth has splashed out promoting Islam in the ‘Living Safe Together’ program.
That would probably also reduce the need for the National Security Hotline and save us all at least $23 million.
And I’ll even throw in this advice for free. It makes sense to all normal people.
May 13, 2016
Back to the analysis of Monis: I wonder at the analysis that goes into saying people like Monis are ‘safe’ or any parolee is ‘safe’. It is just the opinion of ‘experts’? Probably. Interestingly the opinions of experts are notoriously inaccurate; what does work is statistical profiling: what also works is informed self-critical judgement (I’ve just bought Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock). Any expert is subject to the same failings and judgement errors that we all are, and have been well described by Dan Kahneman: we don’t need more opinions, we need parameterised statistical records as the basis for policy and intelligence decisions.
May 9, 2016
Good on you Bernie,
and thank God for social media…getting the word out about ALA was never going to happen through the Main Stream Media.
The two main parties have shown they want the game to themselves ( remember how they shut out Pauline Hanson ?)
It,s often been said that word of mouth is the best form of advertising, so I,d encourage everyone who supports the ideals of the ALA to tell everyone they know about it.
May 5, 2016
Hello Children! Gather around and be quiet for a moment please… First we hope the Syrian president Assad will defeat cruel throat-slitting ISIS, which grew from an off-shoot of Al Qaeda-inspired militant Islamists which US president Obama told us we had defeated.
Then we hope Obama have found some other, but nicer Al Qaeda-inspired Islamists (a/k/a “moderate rebel groups”) we think can help defeat ISIS. But sadly these rebels also fight the Assad regime in Syria, who is supported by the Muslim Shia regime in Iran. Iran is the ugliest sworn enemy of the West because they hunger after Muslim Nuclear Bombs –MND’s
In Iraq like in Syria, the Muslim Shia factions also control the elected government, and we support the Iraqi Shia dominated government. So there is the good, the bad, and the ugly Shias.
Sunni Muslim Al Qaeda and Sunni Muslim ISIS are fighting the Muslim Shias. Ugly Iran is controlled by Muslim Shias. They are our most ugly Muslim enemy, but they also support the good Muslim government in Iraq and unfortunately the bad Assad regime in Syria.
We oppose Muslim Sunni ISIS and Sunni Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. We want the “moderate Sunni Islamic rebels” in Syria to defeat Assad.
Hamas in Gaza is Sunni and a designated a bad-ass rocket-firing tunnel-digging terrorist organisation, and they support both the “moderate rebels” and Sunni ISIS, because they are all Sunni brothers, but they get their support from Iran which is Shia and supports Assad.
Hezbollah in Lebanon is Shia and of course they support their Muslim friends Assad and Iran, but they also support Sunni Hamas in Gaza. Sunni Muslim ISIS got most of their hardware from “moderate rebels” supplied by the “infidel US” and from the fast moving Iraqi army, also supplied by the US.
Sunni ISIS get their vital cash-flow from Sunni dominated Turkey by selling oil on the black market for $40/barrel. Turkey is a NATO alliance partner and of course good friend of the “infidel US”. Turkey is the staging and transfer trampoline for volunteer ISIS fighters from the West. US of course support Turkey with military hardware and training.
Then we have Sunni Saudi-Arabia and Kuwait that has been a source for strong financial support for Sunni ISIS. The Saudi stance is to sit on their hands “grinning” if approached “face-to-face” Arabian Style, or quite the opposite if you turn your back on them, Arabian Style historically speaking. They always carry their “Scimitar” in their belt and Winston Churchill once had some poignant thoughts on the importance of your personal body position in relation to Arabs and snakes in general.
You may ask why Australia is provide 8 (eight) Royal Australian Air Force F/A18 Super Hornet combat aircraft, an E-7A Wedge tail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft; and a KC-30A multi-role tanker and transport aircraft to the region when Saudi Arabia ALONE have at its immediate disposal over 600 (six hundred!) RSAF top-modern well equipped US as well as British made jetfighters plus various support aircraft to a total of over 1000 (one thousand!) operational military aircraft. No small bacon to rice your glasses to by any world standard!
In conclusion: Do our government REALLY understand what it is we are getting ourselves into, or is it not important? If not important to know, what is eeh important here?
May 4, 2016
Great article Bernie. Lets get you into the senate and get this country back on the right track.
May 4, 2016
The most ominous story of the week, yes – even overshadowing the all important budget – falls under the purview of this subject. And it lands right smack on the foot of Mr Safety and Togetherness himself.
Over the Orthdox Easter (the most holy day of the Orthodox religious calendar) – last Sunday – four Orthodox churches go up in flames. Two of these are in Australia.
The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St Sava in Manhattan
The Greek Orthodox Holy Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady in Melbourne
The Macedonian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in Rockdale (a suburb of Sydney)
The Russian Orthodox Valaam Monastery
What are the chances? Realistically. What are the chances?
I can hear the Co-incidence Theorists tut tutting this as a singularity. If the Twitter feed hits the magic number of concerned Australians who have joined the dots, Little Waleed will be wheeled out to warn the Islamophobes and steer the discourse away from terms like ‘co-ordinated attack’. Move along sheeple. Nothing to see here.
But the Syrian Patriarch, Ignace Joseph III Younan, was warning the West (not so long ago actually) about the outbreak of this sort of destruction in the West starting with the Christian population. His warning is even more prescient now.
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3570/isis_assad_and_what_the_west_is_missing_about_syria.aspx
May 3, 2016
Safety and togetherness messages from Nanny Oz cut no falafel with the Islamic Council. They are OK with freedom of speech for the Imams to preach jihad; they will draw the line at freedom of speech for Australians to criticize Islam. The religion of peace is off limits for comment from the kaffirs. And these will be soundly roasted in the oped yada yada as Islamophobes and haters. I can hear little Waleed now on The Project.
May 3, 2016
Fantastic article Bernie. The good side is that we as promoters of ALA are getting a great response Australia wide and that our numbers are growing rapidly. I am finding that the islamisation, free speech and political correctness policies to be very popular and a majority of those who have stayed silent from fear of intimidation and persecution by the minorities and even worse the fear of facing legal issues about free speech just as you are in NSW with this narrow minded government and the never ending sucking up to the Islamic Councils.
Also, has anyone seen the new popular bank commercial with the guy (who in my opinion is being portrayed as a muslim) holds up a mobile phone in a grocery store with an intense look on his face and everyone gets scared and backs away and then he just pays for his milk with his mobile phone. With a majority of IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) being controlled or activated by mobile phone I find this advertisement to be extremely insensitive with the way that it is portrayed and the company expanding on peoples fears just to show a new product. Well that is how I and many others I have spoken to see the meaning of this advertisement. Ads like this are allowed on tv but ALA doesn’t meet Newscorp Brand, go figure.
Keep up the great work to all the ALA Candidates and committee and all the support workers out there doing a fantastic job to make the Australian public aware of what we stand for.
May 3, 2016
WE HAVE TO MAKE A STAND NOW NOT LATER THE SLOPE ONLY GETS STEEPER. ALREADY NO MERRY CHRISTMAS NO EASTER OUR FOOD IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. OUR WOMEN ARE EXPECTED TO DRESS LIKE BLACK BEACH UMBRELLA’S. 340 MOSQUES PREACHING IN ARABIC. THIS IS THE TIP OF THE WEDGE.