In a 2015 speech explaining the Australian Government 's measures against ISIS , Bishop compared the psychological underpinnings of ISIS with that of Nazism . Citing Eric Hoffer 's seminal work '' The True Believer '' , she argued that the declared Caliphate drew from the same source that drove the masses to support Hitler ; " Invincibility was — until the US-led airstrikes — all part of its attraction . " In October 2014 , Man Haron Monis wrote to Attorney-General George Brandis asking if he ( Monis ) could contact the leader of ISIS , two months before he took hostages in the Sydney siege . On 28 May 2015 , Bishop told Parliament that the letter was provided to a review of the siege , before correcting the record three days later
Sydney siege
2014 Sydney hostage crisis
Julie Bishop