Thread by @stilgherrian

Starting shortly at 1200 AEST, the ASPI event “The road from 9/11: The evolution of counterterrorism and extremism”.

I’m interested to hear what Karen Andrews has to say, though I suspect it’ll just be boilerplate. The Morrison government isn’t notable for its intellectual heft.

https://twitter.com/ASPI_org/status/1437212742104928260

What is it with institutional event MCs that they have to read everyone’s entire CV when introducing them? Karen Andrews can simply be introduced as Minister for Home Affairs. Anyway here she is.

The first part of Andrews’ speech is just 9/11 boilerplate. Terrorism is bad, first responders brave, roll call of terrorist attacks, etc. We’re in pandemic lockdown now, but after the pandemic we’ll gather in large groups again and the spectre of terrorism will return.

The terrorism threat level is at PROBABLE where it has been since 2014. The word “probable” is doing a lot of work there.

ANNOUNCEABLE: Andrews has called the state and territory law enforcement ministers to a meeting to discuss counterterrorism. (Don’t they already do this?) Continues the cooperative approach set up by PM John Howard.

Compulsory mention of the dark web. [Drink!]

“With little warning a lone actor with a knife and a mobile phone,” etc.

Yeah apart from announcing what should be a routine, regular meeting, this is just a standard speech about look at all the terrorism we must defend our way of life and a lot of not terribly well joined up thinking confusing terrorism (a strategy) with the ideologies behind it.

We are good because we passed lots of laws and now were are still good because we are about to pass more laws.

“This government has your back,” she says to the law enforcement types. The rule of law should apply online as well as offline etc.

Standard comments about how terrible the internet is, encryption is bad, my priority to stop this, etc etc. Again, all the stuff we’ve heard before.

Terrorism remains a significant threat, Andrews says. (But then so many other things are too.)

“Those who would do us harm” is a phrase that keeps being repeated.

Anyway she’s finished now, and that’s 25 minutes of my life I won’t get back.

Just quietly, delivering such a drab speech with virtually nothing new to say is showing complete disrespect to the people who’ve invited you to speak.

We’ve moved on to the panel. (The minister has of course bailed out before the less-structured conversation.) Here’s the top three upvoted questions. Numbers two and three are to the point.

Roger Noble says the lessons from our international counterterrorism activities are that cooperation is important, actions need to be integrated, and lessons need to be learned and shared from each event — all of which seem to me like the bleeding obvious.

(In the cybers, every single conference people say that what’s needed is more cooperation and information sharing. Really? Yes. Obviously. So just bloody well do it.)

Anyway, those questions. I don’t know whether they’ll necessarily get up because the focus of the discussion is mostly external rather than internal to Australia.

That said, en passant Robert Noble has acknowledged the existence of the neo-Nazis in Australia.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1437245740384866306

The discussion is on Afghanistan right now, which is perhaps inevitable given recent events, but personally I’ve already overdosed on Afghanistan commentary lol.

The panel discussion has finished. I got distracted by currawongs at the end, but as I expected the discussion stayed mostly with West Asia and the allies’ departure from Afghanistan.

Anyway you can watch it all for yourself at the time of your choosing.

https://twitter.com/ASPI_org/status/1437250925895188482