ASIO 'terror' definition brought into scrutiny by Sydney stabbings
Warnings of a 'lone wolf' attack on Australian soil have come true twice in three days. Police only consider one an act of terrorism.
For years, ASIO boss Mike Burgess has described what a terror attack on Australian soil would most likely look like. A loner bursting into sudden violence with little or no warning. They would probably strike at innocents in a public area with a low-grade weapon. Those fears were realised twice in the space of two days.
On Saturday, 40-year-old drifter Joel Cauchi launched Australia’s worst massacre since 2014, stabbing six people to death in a rampage through a shopping centre in Sydney’s Bondi Junction. Two nights later, a 16-year-old allegedly stabbed Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and other worshippers during a live-streamed church service in the city’s west. No one was killed in the attack.
After Burgess’ agency coordinated with NSW and federal police, and provided briefings to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, police quickly ruled out terrorism in Bondi. But they declared the church stabbing would be investigated as a “religiously-motivated” act of terror.
Speaking alongside Albanese and AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw at Parliament on Monday, Burgess said it “looks like” the alleged church attacker acted alone.
