ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns how Howard and his Government maintained legitimacy during this second phase of the war on terror. It continues the genealogy of Australia's war on terror discourse by looking at the period 2002/3 to 2007. The chapter represents the key pillar in the latter phase of Australia's war on terror discourse: Iraq, the Anti-Terrorism Bill Number 2 2005, the Cronulla Riots of 2005, and casualties of Australia's war on terror Habib, Hicks and Haneef. At the core of Howard's set of justifications for Australian involvement in Iraq was the claim that the policy was in the national interest. The chapter explores four dominant and interrelated non-linguistic elements on display at Cronulla whose meaning was legitimated by the war on terror discourse and its associated policies. In sum the impact of the Cronulla Riots was to reinforce division in the community and to legitimate the war on terror discourse through linguistic and non-linguistic processes.
