SO the next time they raise our terrorism alert level to high, I guess we’ll know there’s something on.

What an amazing week – Australia didn’t lose its innocence during those police raids last Thursday, but we awoke from our dewy-eyed slumber to the realisation that the world isn’t as nice as we thought it was.

For the first time since the Bali bombing and the attacks on 9/11, we were forcibly reminded that there are those among us who wish to perpetrate evil. We were reminded that our freedoms can so easily be taken away in a moment. Could these mongrels seriously target Parliament House? Of course they could and they will, if given the chance.

I am astounded at the number of people on social media who seem to believe that the terror raids were some sort of Tony Abbott-led conspiracy.

They think there was no threat and that, as a nation, we were being racist to these poor, defenceless, peaceful Muslims.

I get so frustrated by the way that many in this town see every single news event as a battle between the left and the right. They believe that whatever this government does must be wrong because Tony Abbott is the Prime Minister and they’re completely at odds with his ideology.

What do we have to do to make people understand that there is a genuine threat?

If the FBI and the CIA had undertaken massive early-morning raids across America in August, 2000; if they had arrested dozens of men and claimed that these men were about to hijack jets and fly into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, those same people crying “beat-up” online today would never have believed them.

They would still be talking about the World Trade Centre plot as a George W. Bush conspiracy designed to frighten the American public into falling into line!

If British police had pre-emptively arrested the killers of Lee Rigby, many would not have believed their evil plans were real.

It’s not time to panic. I think it’s time to have some faith in our intelligence and those agencies that react to it.