Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced a new anti-terrorism strategy involving a push for tougher citizenship and immigration laws.
Mr Abbott announced the changes in a speech on national security this morning, promising they would bring about “a stronger, more secure Australia”.
In his statement, Mr Abbott announced the appointment of a national counter-terrorism coordinator and flagged changes to Australia’s system of terror threat alerts, in response to what he said was a rising “terrorism threat” in Australia and abroad.
He stressed that there is now ” an Australian cohort of hardened jihadists” intent on radicalising others.
“The signs are ominous,” he said.
He also announced the government aimed to “clamp down on those organisations that incite religious or racial hatred” — pointing in particular to the political group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Mr Abbott also said Australian nationals would risk losing “privileges” if they were involved in terrorism.
“Those could include restricting the ability to leave or return to Australia, and access to consular services overseas, as well as access to welfare payments,” he said.
He said he would seek to amend the Australian Citizenship Act to enable authorities to revoke Australian citizenship in the case of dual nationals.
The announcement followed the release of a counter-terrorism review commissioned in August.
The joint Commonwealth and New South Wales report — released yesterday — looked at Sydney Siege gunman Man Haron Monis‘ involvement with public agencies including immigration, ASIO and police services over many years prior to the December attack and flagged more stringent visa, citizenship and bail controls, ABC News reports.
In his statement this morning, Mr Abbott also suggested it is necessary to change the balance between community protection and personal freedoms.
“There’s always a trade-off between the rights of an individual and the safety of our community,” he said.
“We will never sacrifice our freedoms but we will not let our enemies exploit our decency.”
Related content: Australia’s terror alert level has been raised to “high”.
The statement followed Mr Abbott’s suggested yesterday that Australia would need to reconsider “where it draws the balance” between personal freedom and community safety, ABC News reports.
“We need to ask ourselves, at what stage do we need to change the tipping point from protection of the individual to the safety of the community?,” he said.
But prominent human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC yesterday questioned the Prime Minister’s motivation, saying Mr Abbott’s call for tighter immigration and citizenship laws in the wake of the Sydney siege was unwarranted.
“If politicians can make a country fearful and make them think that they are being protected from something fearful, they will gain political support,” he said.
“So yes I think there’s a real risk that he’s doing this in order to play on community fears and thereby gain a bit of political popularity.”
Top Comments
Honestly, do you know what would make me feel safer? If we lived in a country where our government didn't try to capitalise on this. If we lived in a country where our government encouraged open and frank discussions about radicalisation, and why certain people were pushed towards it - what the factors were. There are too many people that are tying this to Islam and it's ridiculous - Obama made a great speech on this recently, google it. I would feel safest if we lived in a country where everyone embraced our multiculturalism and people of all races and religions could see appropriate representation of them in our media, on our sportsfields and in positions of power. I know that's the future, and we will get there, but definitely not with our current government.
"There are too many people that are tying this to Islam and it's ridiculous", where do you tie this?
This is a very real issue and I do not think for a moment that our disunited govt and utterly laughable PM are the right people for the job. THAT is what scares me.
What REALLY scares me is the thought of Bill Shorten being in charge of counter terrorism. I think the measures Abbott announced today will act as a reasonable disincentive for those Muslims considering fighting for the Islamic cause overseas.
Right... who would you trust with this very real issue? Bill Shorten? Christine Milne? How about Clive Palmer or Jacqui Lambie? Truth is at least our PM understands that there is a potential problem and has the guts to do something about it, even if some people get their feelings hurt in the process.
What scares me is that Labor imported protentional terrorists with their open border policy.
While the Greens want a total open door policy with no checks.