The federal Opposition Leader has accused the Government of acting too slowly to expand the role of the military in the case of a terrorist attack.
The Defence Minister Robert Hill wants new laws, giving Australian troops more power to mobilise in the event of a terrorist attack, passed before the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March next year.
The Labor leader Kim Beazley wants to know why the Minister did not act earlier.

I hold Senator Faulkner in great esteem even if I have done some mild cartoons of him, usually to his advantage as he probes the duplicity of Johnnee’s government..

He has been the last sane bastion of defence against Johnnee — this snake-oil merchant on heat.

But I was dismayed that Senator Faulkner was forced to capitulate under instructions from his “we’re-all-doomed

Keep your ears peeled for measured responses from our pundits to the current riots in Paris. It's a question of who will be out first, to build on the case for soldiers based in Australian cities. Hill, or Beazley?

The riots have all the elements for the argument, without necessarily coming to the "correct" conclusions. It's a minefield, but silence on the matter, from our own garrisons of the 101st Chairborne, and from the laptop bombardiers, would suggest the fowl-house floor needs a good clean.

C'mon Gerard, Greg, Ted, Andrew, Piggy, Miranda, Janet, Piers, Tim or Imre - who's going to vacate a block of prime real estate for a city army base? Tell us why the French are doing it all wrong, and how they have only themselves to blame.