Monday Forum – Mr Abbott’s jail before bail, tripe and the need for change

It seems Mr Abbott cannot help himself. This is the key excerpt from Mr Abbott’s now famous video on national security:

I will also be making a national security statement on Monday week.

It’s clear to me, that for too long, we have given those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt.

There’s been the benefit of the doubt at our borders, the benefit of the doubt for residency, the benefit of the doubt for citizenship and the benefit of the doubt at Centrelink.

And in the courts, there has been bail, when clearly there should have been jail.

We are a free and fair nation. But that doesn’t mean we should let bad people play us for mugs, and all too often they have: Well, that’s going to stop.

The rise of the Islamist death cult in the Middle East has seen the emergence of new threats where any extremist can grab a knife, a flag, a camera phone and a victim and carry out a terror attack.

As a nation we are responding to this threat. Abroad, Australia is working with allies to disrupt and degrade the Islamist death cult. At home, we have provided our security services with more powers, more resources and stronger laws.

We are currently considering additional legislation on data retention that’s before the Parliament – and this will make it easier to keep you safe and we want to get this legislation passed as quickly as we can.

I give you this assurance: As a country, we won’t let evil people exploit our freedom.

Mmm. Mr Abbott promised us a new, kinder, listening Tony. Instead, we have jail before bail; let’s get rid of the benefit of doubt; after all, you know the Government is right. We won’t let evil people exploit your freedom. We are quite capable of doing that ourselves. And I will explain all this to you in simple language that even a mug can understand. This is Michael Gordon’s take'; I’m inclined to agree with it.

Last  week’s Monday Forum - What is your least favourite vegetable and why? drew some interesting comments. Cauliflower came in worst with two votes. However, I really liked Ramana’s nomination of the bitter gourd.

Now here I have to confess to my own confusion. I mentioned eating humble pie, but that (as was pointed out) is a meat based dish. Then I mentioned mushrooms, again (as pointed out) not a vegetable. To add insult to injury, I called the bitter gourd a fruit when it  is, of course, a member of the cucumber family.

Mind you, I am not alone in this confusion. In comments on Ramana’s post someone mentioned tripe, before hastily pointing out that tripe was not a vegetable.   So confusion abounds. Feel free to add to it in whatever way you like, And, before you apply tripe to Mr Abbott’s remarks, I have just done so!

Finally, in the midst of Australia’s political turmoil, the business community and Australian Financial Review are busy beating their breasts and bewailing the way that the current Australian political climate prevents necessary reforms. I happen to agree with them, if not with the detail of the prescription that they wish us to take.

So a challenge. Put your change hat on. What changes would you like to see introduced?