Knives & iPhones: The New WMD

Got the post-election blues? No more carbon tax to kick around anymore? Can't sell your dog of a budget? Popularity nosediving in the polls? The answer's simple. There's a tried and true formula: Wave the flag. Wear it even. Why not? Hang out with the top brass and the boys in blue. Wear specs. Makes you look more like a suppository of wisdom, less of a bogan thug. Strut the world stage. Tell Putin to step outside, mate. Start a war. Above all, concoct a security threat, divide and sow fear in the community. Works a treat:

"As all of you know, we live in an uncertain and changing world. I've often said that all citizens of a peaceful democracy like Australia shrink from reaching out to conflicts in other parts of the world, but what we've seen in recent times is these conflicts reaching out to us. As you all know, there are at least 60 Australians who are known to be fighting with ISIL and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. There are at least 100 Australians who are known to be supporting ISIL and other terrorist groups in the Middle East... As you know, a week ago, the terror threat level was officially raised and as I think all of you would now know, earlier this week a specific instruction came from a senior Australian ISIL operative in Syria to the local ISIL network to carry out what I've described as demonstration killings of Australian citizens. In order to disrupt this, there was a very large anti-terror event in Sydney yesterday. Some 800 police and security officials were involved, 25 premises were raided, 15 people were detained, one person has already been charged with very serious terrorist offences. Investigations are ongoing and the police expect further charges to be laid against other individuals... [T]he best way for people to respond to the threat of terror is to go about their normal lives. Terrorists want to scare us out of being ourselves and our best response is insouciantly to be fully Australian, to defy the terrorists by going about our normal business; by being the decent, peaceful, democratic, and tolerant people that Australians always have been and, as far as I am concerned, always will be... I do have to say, though, that the challenges that we face are more serious today than at any time in the past. We saw on the streets of London a year or so back the sorts of thing which some people would like to perpetrate here in this country, and it is a serious situation when all you need to do to carry out a terrorist attack is to have a knife, an iPhone, and a victim." (Tony Abbott, Joint Press Conference, Sydney, pm.gov.au, 19/9/14)