Fact file: Five facts about terrorism in Australia
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has released a review of Australia's "counter-terrorism machinery" and delivered a statement on national security, warning: "The terrorist threat is rising at home and abroad – and it's becoming harder to combat."
Mr Abbott announced a crackdown on organisations that incite religious or racial hatred and new measures to strengthen immigration laws, as well as new options for dealing with Australian citizens who are involved in terrorism.
Australia is on a "high" level of alert, according to the Commonwealth Government's National Terrorism Public Alert System, meaning a terrorist attack is considered likely. The level was raised from "medium" in September 2014.
ABC Fact Check has been looking at terrorism in Australia.
1. Terror Australis
The word "terrorism" has become all too familiar in recent decades, yet there is still some debate about what is or is not defined as terrorism. As the old saying goes, your terrorist might be my freedom fighter. Under Australian law, a terrorist act is defined as when "the action is done or the threat is made with the intention of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause".
The Australian Defence Force defines terrorism as "the use or threatened use of violence for political ends, or any use or threatened use of violence for the purpose of putting the public or any section of the public in fear".
The Government's list of 20 terrorist organisations under Australian law includes the following:
*Al-Qa'ida:* Responsible for the 9-11 attacks in 2001, and the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
*Abu Sayyaf:* Fighting for an independent Islamic state in the Philippines.
*Al-Shabaab:* Wants an Islamic state in Somalia, killed hundreds in suicide bombings in Somalia and Uganda.
*Ansar al Islam:* A Sunni group which attacked Iraqi and coalition forces in northern Iraq.
*Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh:* A Sunni group which wants to create an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, made significant military gains including capturing Fallujah in northern Iraq.
*Boko Haram:* Wants to create an Islamic state under Sharia law in Nigeria, has killed thousands of civilians and kidnapped hundreds, including a group of 200 schoolgirls.
*Jemaah Islamiyah:* Seeks to overthrow the Indonesian government and establish an Islamic state in South East Asia. JI is believed responsible for attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Of the 20 listed terrorist groups, 19 are described as Islamist and just one is considered "predominantly secular" – the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party.
2. The war at home
What may have been the first act of terrorism in Australia occurred on New Year's Day in 1915, when two men who had worked as camel-drivers attacked a train near Broken Hill in New South Wales.
Mullah Abdullah, a 59-year-old Islamic priest, Halal butcher and camel driver, conspired with an ice cream vendor named Mahomed Gool to attack the train carrying around twelve hundred people travelling to a holiday picnic. The men opened fire with two rifles, killing two passengers and injuring six others. Gool, who was a migrant from Afghanistan, and Abdullah, from what is now either Pakistan, India or Afghanistan, killed two other people before their rampage ended in a gun battle with police and army personnel. Abdullah died at the scene, Gool later on his way to hospital.
Letters found on the men after their deaths suggested Abdullah was angry at being prosecuted for slaughtering meat illegally, and Gool wanted to fight on Turkey's behalf against an ally of the British.
Contemporary newspaper reports said the men were flying a Turkish flag from Gool's ice cream cart, leading to the belief they were Turks.
The Kalgoorlie Miner reported on "The Broken Hill Outrage" and described a "state of intense excitement over the sensational happenings".
Other newspapers reported that German officials were claiming a military victory in the battle at Broken Hill. The unnamed German officials claimed, among other things, Broken Hill was on the West Coast of Australia (it's in NSW, near the border with SA) that it was a port (it's inland) that forty "enemy" were killed (the death toll was four) and remarkably, that the way was open for an attack on the Australian capital "Canbris".
However the fallout was very real. Members of the local German, Austrian and Afghan community were targeted in reprisal attacks and interned until the end of the First World War in 1918.
3. Terror in the '70s and '80s
Acts of terrorism became increasingly common in Australia in the 1970s, with a number of bombings at Yugoslav consulates, letter bombs addressed to Israeli officials and members of the Jewish community, the kidnapping and wounding of an Indian official and his wife, and the assassination of the Turkish Consul-General and his bodyguard.
On February 13, 1978 the Hilton Hotel in Sydney was host to a regional Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, when a bomb planted in a rubbish bin exploded as it was emptied into a garbage truck.
Two council workers were killed instantly and a policeman later died of his injuries.
In an odd coincidence, one of the early leads reportedly followed by NSW police was an ice cream truck seen near the hotel containing two men of "Arabic appearance" and a third man described as a "Yugoslav". The owner of the Kombi van was later cleared of any involvement.
There were many other theories on who might have been responsible. A building union leader claimed it could have been the government itself or "fascists". Federal Government backbencher Michael Hodgman (father of the Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman) called for the death penalty for terrorist bombers.
Later a police informant name Richard John Seary claimed a fellow member of the Ananda Marga religious sect planted twelve sticks of gelignite in the bin an hour before the Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai arrived at the hotel.
It wasn't until 1989 that Ananda Marga member Evan Pederick confessed to planting the bomb to target Desai, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is now an Anglican priest in Perth.
The Hilton bombing led to the creation of the Australian Federal Police in 1979, which played an increasing role in counter-terrorism activities. There has been ongoing speculation about whether the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) may have had prior knowledge of the Hilton bomb plot but allowed it to continue.
4. Foiled attacks
Since the 9-11 attacks in the United States and the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, there have also been a number of attempted or planned attacks on Australian soil. There have been 35 prosecutions and 26 convictions and the review of the Government's counter-terrorism arrangements contains the following list of "terrorist plots disrupted since 2001":
5. Lindt cafe siege
On the morning of December 15, 2014, a self-styled spiritual healer, clairvoyant and sheikh who had arrived in Australia from Iran in 1996 under the name of Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, took staff and customers hostage at gunpoint inside the Lindt cafe in Sydney's Martin Place.
Now called Man Haron Monis, the gunman locked the doors and forced some of his hostages to hold up a flag resembling that of the Islamic State terrorist group in the cafe window.
The siege continued for around seventeen hours, with some hostages managing to escape, before ending in a heavy exchange of bullets and stun grenades with security forces.
Monis had killed one hostage before he and another hostage were killed in the gunfire. Several other hostages were wounded.
It was revealed Monis was on bail having been charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-partner.
The review of counter-terrorism machinery described the Martin Place siege as a "terrorist" attack, and Treasurer Joe Hockey declared the events at the Lindt cafe a "terrorist incident" for the purposes of the Terrorism Insurance Act.
A joint Commonwealth-NSW Government review concluded that while Australian agencies had been "familiar" with Monis over many years, ASIO and law enforcement agencies "never found any information to indicate Monis had the intent or desire to commit a terrorist act".
In his opening address to the coronial inquest into the deaths on January 29, 2015 barrister Jeremy Gormly SC said of Monis: "At present it seems he had not established any contact with Islamic State before the siege though someone claiming to be from Islamic State adopted Mr Monis's actions and his siege after his death." The inquest would explore "what terrorist associations, if any" Monis had, he said.
