'Philips Brief: The Hilton Bombing, Calling Out the Troops and Turning Points in History' (2014) 38 Criminal Law Journal 59-62
University of Queensland TC Beirne School of Law Research Paper No. 15-01
S Bronitt, K ODonnell,'Philips Brief: The Hilton Bombing, Calling out the Troops and Turning Points in History' (2014) 38 Criminal Law Journal 59-62
5 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2020
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
The bombing outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on 13 February 1978 as Heads of Government gathered for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (CHOGRM) is generally viewed as an historical turning point, signalling Australia’s loss of innocence and exposing our domestic vulnerability to political violence and acts of terrorism. A police officer and two council workers were killed, many others were injured, and it remains a serious and unsolved crime. The event led to a military call out, which was the first time since Federation that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) had been deployed militarily on Australian soil to deal with a domestic security threat. The aftermath of the Hilton bombing generated numerous official reviews and reports, extensive media investigations and academic scholarship traversing a wide range of issues, including: (1) the constitutional and legal basis for the call out of troops in aid to the civil power; (2) examination of the suspected group responsible (Ananda Marga), as well as the failures in subsequent prosecutions and resulting miscarriage of justice (Tim Anderson); (3) the role of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in the affair, and precisely what ASIO knew (or did not know) about the bomb plot; and (4) the broader policy response.
Keywords: criminal law, policing, security
JEL Classification: K14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation