Hugo Kelly writes:

It’s typical of Tony Abbott not to run
away from a stoush. Which makes his anger at being forced to abandon
yesterday’s public VSU debate with Julia Gillard understandable, even
if there was a touch of humbug about his claim police were allowing
“thugs” to threaten freedom of speech.

At a pinch, Abbott could
have relied on his beefy cabal of campus Young Libs to form a
praetorian guard and get him through the swarming Sydney Uni protesters
at the Manning Bar. There are plenty of NSW tiny tories who’d gladly
take a stubby in the back for their political hero. But instead, Abbott
chose to throw his punches from the comfortable distance of the 2UE
studios, where the debate was finally held five hours late.

The canning of the debate after police couldn’t guarantee his safety even reached the ears of Michelle Grattan, but it was this report in yesterday’s Daily Tele that interested us:

“In
an unprecedented move, a senior NSW police officer wrote to Mr Abbott
telling him to cancel his debate with Labor MP Julia Gillard at Sydney
University today because of the risk of violence by protesters,”
reported the paper. And here’s the intriguing line: “Mr Waites revealed
yesterday he had not written the letter himself, but had signed it and
stood by it.”

So who did pen the letter that so upset Abbott? If
not Assistant Commissioner Robert Waites, then who in the hierarchy
didn’t want Abbott to make an appearance?

It was a question the Tele
left hanging on Monday, but appeared to answer today, when it quoted
Waites saying “the dignitary protection group of the Counter-Terrorist
Co-ordination Command had advised him the bar was ‘too risky’ a
location.”

Waites told the Tele that every time a
senior politician or foreign dignitary spoke in public, the protection
group conducted a risk assessment of the venue including access in and
out. So it appears Tony Abbott, like it or not, is the latest victim in
the inevitable security tightening that happens when we’re all expected
to be alert but not alarmed.