OPINION

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has chosen a rough alphabetical order of organisations he believes have failed to be patriotic.

There was the ABC, (“Whose side are you on?”), the ALP (Labor wants to “no doubt roll out the red carpet” for terrorists).

The ACTU must be wondering if it is next.

It’s not unusual for politicians on all sides to declare a group or agency ‘un-Australian’ for clashing with some unwritten orthodoxy. It has a culture war for decades.

But it is another matter for a Prime Minister to accuse groups of being on the un-Australian side of a national security danger such as the terrorism promoted by the IS butchers in Syria and their outposts.

Particular when his claims are demonstrably rubbish.

This is what the Prime Minister did and his objective was to strengthen his political position by using the warranted alarm over terrorism attacks to strike at those he sees as his political enemies.

It’s good for him and his right-wing back benchers, who in February came close to turfing him out. They are loving it.

There is no doubt the security risk is real. The deranged and deadly forces of Islamic State are attractive to a small, extremist minority of Australians who think they have a mission to kill people and destroy Australian values.

Police and intelligence agencies are not kicking in doors for the thrill. They are genuinely and justifiably concerned about plots to behead Australians on home soil.

MPs and the public want to help authorities track down these grubs, even as it involves the surrender of bits of our personal privacy we might never get back.

There is undoubted unity on this, but the Prime Minister is exploiting it as a point of division.

Tony Abbott is attacking others as if they were at least IS fellow travellers in murder, if not active partners.

The Prime Minister wants to present himself as the only leader able to protect the nation, and to do that he has to undermine those who might question his status.

First off, was the Labor Opposition and then the ABC, neither of which was remotely interested in aiding terrorism.

The rush — close to a reckless rush — to present legislation removing citizenship from dual nationals, associated with terrorist activities, was in part done to see if the Opposition would back it.

When Labor questioned the detail of the plan, it was branded the terrorist welcome party. Ministers had done the same thing but that was another matter.

On Thursday Parliament rose for seven weeks with Mr Abbott having achieved his aim. Labor and the ABC were to varying degrees defending themselves and he looked like the strong anti-terrorist guy who inspected ASIO maps.

It was the politics of division when unity was needed.