The country's political leaders will emerge from the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart on Friday in the standard manner, emphasising their shared commitment to national problem-solving.
Such unity would never be more called for than at the end of a harrowing week scarred by terrorist brutalities, which stole three brilliant Australian lives.
More National News Videos
- Video duration
- 01:45
How was Brighton gunman on parole?
How was Brighton gunman on parole?
Prime Minister Turnbull says the issue of parole has to be addressed after revelations the Brighton gunman had a long history of violence. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
Up Next
Turnbull v Andrews
- Video duration
- 02:05
- Video duration
- 02:05
Turnbull v Andrews
Turnbull v Andrews
It's a frosty reception between the Prime Minister and Victorian Premier at COAG after each threw barbs over parole laws and the roles of States and the Commonwealth.
Up Next
What is the CET?
- Video duration
- 00:46
- Video duration
- 00:46
What is the CET?
What is the CET?
The latest idea to curb greenhouse gases is a clean energy target, but what does that actually mean?
Up Next
Australia's first capsule hotel opens in Sydney
- Video duration
- 00:45
- Video duration
- 00:45
Australia's first capsule hotel opens in ...
Australia's first capsule hotel opens in Sydney
Originating in Japan in the late 1970s, the capsule hotel has finally arrived in Australia.
Up Next
Hanson's call for internment
- Video duration
- 02:22
- Video duration
- 02:22
Hanson's call for internment
Hanson's call for internment
Calls from One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to "intern" those on the terror watch list invoke a dark history of detainment that stretches back to World War Two.
Up Next
New vision of Bolt attack
- Video duration
- 00:26
- Video duration
- 00:26
New vision of Bolt attack
New vision of Bolt attack
New vision has emerged up on Twitter of conservative commentator Andrew Bolt being attacked in Melbourne, shot by the attackers.
Up Next
London attacks: Australian families in mourning
- Video duration
- 03:28
- Video duration
- 03:28
London attacks: Australian families in ...
London attacks: Australian families in mourning
The families of Kirsty Boden and Sara Zelenak are in mourning following confirmation of their deaths in the London Bridge terror attack.
Up Next
How we can stop copycat killers
- Video duration
- 00:53
- Video duration
- 00:53
How we can stop copycat killers
How we can stop copycat killers
Crime writer John Silvester says there's a fairly simple way we can discourage the kind of ISIS-inspired murder we saw in Brighton on Monday.
How was Brighton gunman on parole?
Prime Minister Turnbull says the issue of parole has to be addressed after revelations the Brighton gunman had a long history of violence. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
Yet in the few days since, squalid political price-taking has already crept into the public space, and it began right at the top.
Within hours of the Brighton siege in suburban Melbourne, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was firing off barbs at the state government as a display of his hardened resolve against "Islamist terrorism". Why, Turnbull asked pointedly, was the gunman Yacqub Khayre on parole?
Related Content
Yet the former practising lawyer already knew the answer. Khayre had been been charged with a violent crime for which the evidence had seen him convicted in court, sentenced, imprisoned, and eventually, paroled.
Turnbull's personal anger at the mindless futility of the Brighton siege and the London attacks, was fitting enough. As was his eagerness to pivot from his past emphasis on multiculturalism in the acute trauma of the moment. But the partisan note he stuck was discordant.
Daniel Andrews' bluff-calling response – offering to cede adjudication of parole applications to ASIO and the AFP amid the faintest national security concerns – was nonetheless, a tacit acceptance of the limitations of the Victorian criminal justice machinery. It was a win for Turnbull's point. Yet he read only its politics.
Rather than welcoming the Premier's preparedness to constructively engage, Turnbull again played the political angle, seeking to further diminish Andrews' prestige in the Garden State.
"I think many Victorians would be shaking their heads at the prospect that the Victorian Premier wants to abdicate his responsibility as leader of the government of Victoria," he said.
Turnbull has worked well with premiers in the past to establish indefinite post-sentence detention for convicted terrorists. Assuming he wants to extend that regime to non-terrorist violent offenders, he needs state co-operation.
In any event, voters could not care less which level of government or policing manages potential terrorist threats as long as it is done successfully – actual threats eliminated and potential ones identified.
Getting to that point means working together rather than pulling apart and fighting Jihadists rather than scoring points off each other, and engaging in tawdry inter-governmental blame-shifting.