Remembering the Hilton Hotel bombing
EARLY on the morning of
February 13, 1978, terror struck the streets of Sydney when a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in George St.
The blast killed three people and hurt seven more, including policeman Terry Griffiths, who has lived with horrible injuries ever since.
On today's 30th anniversary of this gutless and cowardly attack, the whole NSW community honours the victims, their families and the survivors. They are not forgotten.
The Hilton bombing was terrorism, pure and simple. Then prime minister Malcolm Fraser and 11 visiting Commonwealth leaders were staying in the hotel at the time. This was a carefully timed attack on their meeting.
The Hilton bombing was one of those moments when our community lost its innocence. It brought Australia into the terrorist era.
For places like Israel and Northern Ireland, terrorism had been depressingly familiar.
For Australians, the idea of groups pursuing political goals through blood and violence was a deeply disturbing and deeply foreign change to our way of life. Today, terrorism is sadly anything but foreign, though it remains disturbing to think that there are groups around the world who would love nothing better than to inflict another urban bombing on Sydney, only with many more casualties.
By definition, these terrorists, like the Hilton bombers, train and prepare in secret, wreaking their havoc when it is least expected. That means traditional military solutions are not the answer.
Instead, we rely on the painstaking work of counter-terrorism, with its specialist techniques such as phone and email tapping, surveillance, infiltration of suspect groups and the tracing of money trails.
Since 2001, investment by the Federal and State governments in counter-terrorism has more than doubled.
We have sacrificed a share of our civil liberties so police can thwart the sneaky, insidious methods of the terrorists. And, unlike 1978, we are all much more aware.
Thirty years down the track, it is clear the Hilton bombing wasn't just an historical one-off but a tragic entree to an age of terror that remains with us.
I commend the City of Sydney for restoring the memorial plaque in George St and giving it a prominent new home.
I just hope we won't need any more. One plaque, one Sydney bombing, is enough.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23206442-5007146,00.html
