Yesterday’s incident at Minto Marketplace thankfully ended up being a false alarm.
But after talking to a few of the anxious looking shoppers locked out of the centre when it was evacuated, it was clear that we are getting more and more worried about terrorism.
Even the cause of the incident is evidence that we are, quite rightly, just not taking any chances with anything this days.
It all started yesterday afternoon when an Australia Post staff member picked up a parcel that felt and sounded suspicious.
This resulted in the total evacuation of the shopping centre, shoppers and store operators and their staff.
I spoke to some of them afterwards and you could tell one or two were a little shaken by what had just happened.
The centre remained in lockdown mode until the bomb squad arrived and it was discovered it was a false alarm.
Yes, it’s safe to go in, a police officer told me when I asked him.
But back to what the people are thinking because it seems to be a little at odds with the government’s approach.
There was a lot of discussion about this on talkback radio as well this week, with some callers suggesting it was time the government ramped up its response to terrorism before things got out of hand.
Suggestions included internment for some of the people on terror watch lists or even deportations.
Tough talk indeed but nobody mentioned the repercussions of such action.
The Prime Minister, in response to the London and Melbourne terror acts, said parole conditions should be tightened up and social media proprietors should be more alert to communications on their sites between terrorists.
I believe most of us are doing our very best to just live normal lives and terrorism is not something we talk about every day.
But every time there’s an incident it’s another reminder of this threat to our way of life.
The government needs to know that we expect a little more from them.
