Perceptions of terrorism in Australia: 1978–2019

How and why have Australians come to view some infringement of their civil liberties as an acceptable trade-off in the interest of countering terrorism? This article contributes to understandings of preference formation by placing the focus on the interaction of public and elite perceptions of terrorism and counter-terrorism, over an extended time period. I trace the trajectory of Australian public debate over the course of four decades, through the lens of three intervening critical junctures; the 1978 Hilton bombing, Australia’s experience with international terrorism in the early twenty-first century, and the rise of ‘home grown’ terror from 2014. By uncovering the domestic dynamics that characterise public discourse and debate at each of these junctures, a more complete picture emerges of how Australian society understands and enacts counter-terror policy in response to the transnational terror threat.