HECK of a way for the new ASIO director-general, Duncan Lewis, to begin his tenure at the top.

The police raids in Sydney and Brisbane were no doubt planned while David Irvine occupied the big chair. But they were just the beginning of a war of attrition against the Jihadis at home and abroad.

Fortunately, Duncan Lewis is no stranger to testing times. His career in Australia’s Special Forces will have prepared him well for the long haul ahead.

However, Canberrans could be forgiven for a bemused confusion in parsing the warnings from Territory police chief Rudi Lammers.

“The community doesn’t need to be concerned, and doesn’t need to be startled,” he said. “But it needs to be continually alert to the possibilities of a government-stated terrorist attack likelihood.”

A simple declarative sentence wouldn’t go astray, Rudi.

AND was it really necessary for PM Tony Abbott to cut short his long-delayed foray to Arnhem Land to farewell Australian air force personnel headed for the Middle East? It couldn’t possibly be that he figures there’s more votes in a photo op with the troops than with our Aboriginal predecessors. Oh, perish the thought.

WHATEVER possessed Katy Gallagher to back her Minister for Corrections Shane Rattenbury in his “commitment” to the free-needle program at Canberra’s jail?

It’s a logical absurdity; surely a stretch in prison gives inmates the chance to toss the habit; the free-needle policy not only feeds the addiction it encourages non-users to take it up. And how are the prison officers expected to respond?

It clearly implies that drugs will somehow be supplied to prisoners, yet their jailers are sacked for turning a blind eye or prosecuted for doing so themselves. Madness.

NORFOLK Islanders who vote in the Seat of Canberra in federal elections have decided to have their own vote on same-sex marriage.

Gay Cam Christian, one of the many descendants of Fletcher who led the mutiny on the Bounty, is driving the “yes” case in the Island’s Legislative Assembly. And why not? Since practically all the former Pitcairners are related, they’d just be keeping it in the family anyway.

WHAT a refreshing “Q&A” program when some of our more distinguished scientists replaced the politicians and other sectional partisans normally on the show. The pity is that science itself has been marginalised, whereas it really governs every aspect of our lives.

Climate change didn’t surface till the last question. If only members of the Abbott Government were watching they’d have hung their heads in shame.

REVELATIONS that foreign diplomats in Canberra are misusing their legal immunity by driving drunk and dangerous are hardly new.

But they do highlight the absurdity of some aspects of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The privileges granted to diplomats by the Australian head of state are designed simply “to ensure that they may effectively carry out their duties”. This should not mean they can endanger the lives of Canberrans by driving under the influence.

ON a happier note, a visit to Floriade revealed our premier festival has lost none of its charm. And the food served in the cafes is better (and quicker) than ever. Five stars!

robert@robertmacklin.com