New Zealand asks "Could terrorists strike here?" :s

The attacks in France have even got the Kiwis a bit jittery across the Tasman. Prime Minister John Key however is very placating, pointing out New Zealand's isolation and distance from pretty much everyone. It's even about a 3 hour plane flight from here in Sydney (depending on if you have a head wind or not). To be honest, as a Kiwi who's grown up there, I felt like I was at the ass end of the world.

The internet still blows my mind at times. I grew up when it took weeks to get a postal snail mail letter delivered from overseas. A phone call to outside the country was utterly rare and hugely expensive. WTF would be the point of doing terror there?

John Key explains to any jittery Kiwi's thus:

"I think every country in the world is potentially vulnerable, we're probably less vulnerable than others. 

"We have in this instance the advantage of distance, we're a long way away, [but] i just couldn't say to you we're completely immune." 

Key said New Zealand's place in the Five Eyes club - an intelligence alliance with the US, Canada, the UK and Australia - also helped to protect the country, but he warned that terrorists were becoming more aware about how to protect their communications from being intercepted. 

"We have a responsibility to other New Zealanders to do the best we can to monitor any behaviour that we think is unusual or untoward [but] we can't guarantee we get on top of all of that. 

"These people are quite sophisticated in the way they communicate with each other, but we're certainly a lower risk environment than many other parts of the world." 

Key said there had been no dramatic changes to New Zealand's watchlist of potential threats to the country, while officials would continue to review the threat level to reflect changing risks. "stuff"

So there you have it. Positively just about impossible that anyone would be bothered to go to New Zealand to commit a terrorist act........ 












Oh hang on...........

Um, well there was one country that did. A photographer died in the attack (pictured). 

How ironic. 



Yes it's been decades, but Kiwis will never forget when France committed an act of terror in our little colloquial country fully at the ass end of the world. 

This was the last terrorist attack in New Zealand, and to my knowledge the only one. France went right out of it's way to do it.