In a recent speech, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about the deadly danger of left-wing activism, claiming that there is all too frequently a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to the violence of the left. ‘Here in my country, so many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression, so long as they served a left-wing cause,’ he said. Secretary Rubio then recounted how, even in the midst of the Black Lives Matter arson and looting, news reports were referring to the riots being ‘mostly peaceful’. Hilariously, we saw exactly the same phrase being used last week by the BBC to describe the horrendous migrant-fuelled riots and anarchy on the streets of Paris. Secretary Rubio added, ‘It is time to crush this evil forever. Far-left political terrorism is not a recent-day modern novelty. It is not a fiction manufactured by conservative politicians.’

In recent years we have seen far-left violence directed against Donald Trump on several occasions and, tragically, the murder of Brian Thompson and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, slayings which, even here in Australia, were greeted with tacit approval by many of the chattering leftist classes. Violence, even murder, are acceptable political tactics to many young left-leaning Australians, Americans and Europeans, it would appear, so long as the victims are white, male and/or conservative or capitalist in their views. Young Australian leftists, especially certain influential young women, are all too happy to give a nod of approval to violent ‘resistance’.

The sick fantasy of the Albanese Labor government is that there is some vast far-right network out there in the shadows stirring up all sorts of malign schemes. Indeed, the ‘far right’, the ‘neo-Nazis’ and the ‘white supremacists’ appear to warrant far more attention from the Albanese government – certainly in press conferences and interviews – than do, for example, radical Islamist hate preachers and their ilk. But the simple fact is that the violence and political trouble-making that this country has seen in recent years is almost entirely of the left, be it of the communist, socialist, anarchist or Islamist persuasion.

This is especially disturbing because the same causes that appear to motivate much of the violence we are seeing are simply the more extreme versions of the causes and ideologies that an entire generation of young Australians have been indoctrinated into. It was only a few years ago we saw on the evening news hysterical young Aussie school kids screaming and weeping bitter tears about climate change. Nowadays, that rage and passion has been diverted directly into hatred of Pauline Hanson, which is a disgrace, and support for Hamas – sorry, we mean the pro-Palestinian movement. (It’s telling how these days very few politicians, activists or commentators can be bothered to draw any distinction between the two. Long gone are the days of the automatic disavowal of Hamas terrorism).

All of this is not to say the far right are innocent babes; there are some truly sickening views out there, with far-right antisemitism being among the worst.

But it is in the hard left of Australian politics that we see the seeds of the sort of insurrection and violent anarchy that is bedevilling France, Italy, Belgium and, inevitably, parts of the United Kingdom. We see the ubiquitous Palestinian flags at virtually any leftist march. This is now the universal banner of anarchy and mayhem. We see the angry, hysterical young faces distorted with rage screeching from the podiums, frequently young women. We see the convergence of the Palestinian cause with the so-called ‘First Nations’ cause, with the flags of both now virtually interchangeable. (There will be parts of Australia where the Palestinian flag will be far more prevalent than the Australian flag this coming 26 January, we suspect.)

This week, independent federal MP Helen Haines suffered the most appalling injuries in an horrific event and has now tragically lost both her legs. A man has been charged and although the motivations that led to the incident are unknown at this stage, there has been much public angst about violence and modern politics.

On top of which came the shock news that a recent ‘dirt file’ directed against Helen Haines apparently came from the office of the Prime Minister himself.

Mr Albanese has given no adequate explanation for this, and is disgustingly bluffing his way through, with meaningless and evasive answers. But the fish rots from the head, and the lack of any serious morality-based political leadership from this government has a lot to answer for.