Opinion
One of my first jobs when I joined the NSW Police Protection Operations Unit was to provide a security escort to then prime minister John Howard through the Sydney CBD. A young man spotted the “C1” number plates and the little Australian flag fluttering as the PM’s white saloon car rolled by. So he ran up to the window, stuck up his middle finger, shouted a few expletives and stood down.
A very minor incident, but I point it out because Australians have always had the larrikin tendency to feel they have the right not only to tell their mates what they think of them and where to go but also their elected representatives – in this case Australia’s 25th prime minister in 2005.
Fast-forward two decades and things are radically different.
I am deeply saddened by the attack on Helen Haines and wish her a full recovery, although I wonder if it’s possible to fully recover from an attack such as this – physically or psychologically.
But what about politically?
Things are different. People are polarised. There’s anger at a level beyond a middle finger at a consulate car window. Many are stressed personally, financially and, regrettably, sometimes those with strong emotional connections to an ideology react violently towards those who don’t agree with them.
Keeping our politicians safe has never been harder for police. At Counter Terrorism Command we always figured an attack could come at any time, from anywhere and from anyone. The result of a spontaneous decision or a finely tuned, pre-planned event.
What’s changed is that anything is a weapon now. We used to think of weapons as firearms we had a register for, but now a Toyota Land Cruiser or any vehicle can inflict as much if not more damage than a gun. And in a rural area on a suburban street where politicians like Haines would have prided themselves on informal links to the communities they served, well, the basic security measures are fewer and further between.
I’ve provided close personal protection over the years to presidents, kings and queens, prime ministers, premiers, as well as various members of the military or spy agencies from Australia and abroad.
Many of those people I admired and respected, and would willingly have risked my life to protect them in the office they held. I also looked after people for whom I had, let’s just say, less respect for and with whom I strongly disagreed politically, but I still would have risked my life to protect them. That was the job I signed up for.
The question I ask myself and I ask the nation is how have we become a country where an everyday person would seek to attack, maim or kill another person they disagree with when I was willing to lay down my life for someone I disliked?
When I escorted that car carrying Howard through Sydney in 2005, sure, people were divided on many topics. People disagreed. But the right and the left didn’t seem as deeply entrenched and diametrically opposed as they are now and any attack we anticipated came more from organised terror or crime groups rather than “Joe Citizen” who’d been blowing up on social media.
The indoctrination or radicalisation of people, whether it be through educational institutions, clubs, online through the dark web or through social media platforms has generated a subculture of people who are unable to live peacefully with others who might disagree with them or think differently. Their response to this conditioning is too often violent or hostile, heightening the threat and risk to high office holders.
It used to be easier to tell who the bad guy was. Crime wore a balaclava and carried a gun, it didn’t dress in civvies in broad daylight while driving down the main street of Wangaratta.
What’s the solution?
It would be impossible and impractical to provide protection for every politician. Budget restraints, manpower, intelligence, surveillance … there is too much to do at too big a cost.
Haines. Bondi. Whatever else is happening or about to happen in Australia, how do we stop it from happening or, worse still, becoming a common occurrence?
It must start from the top, so my first appeal is to those leaders I would have “taken a bullet for”. Everyone I talk to has one common complaint – people no longer feel heard. People no longer feel cared about. People no longer feel safe, and it’s driving many of them to more radical solutions, radical politics and radical actions.
So don’t play politics like a game because its consequences flow on to us. Bipartisan approaches may be required on some occasions. Rise above political point scoring and come together on the big issues for the sake of the country, the sake of its people, and the sake of Helen Haines.
If all we see is you disagreeing, all we will do is disagree.
My second appeal is to the people of Australia. Maintain the larrikin! Debate. Disagree. But violence is never an option. Its consequences are catastrophic and rather than changing what you want it to change, history shows it usually has the opposite effect.
Rob Albert is a former NSW Police close personal protection officer.
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