Turnbull proposes tighter national security laws to protect Australia from terrorism

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has proposed tighter security laws to protect the country from global terrorism threats. The Liberal leader has cited the recent attacks in Nice and Orlando as reasons Australia should toughen its national security.

On Monday, Turnbull said Australia needed to update its current legislation to remain safe from terrorist groups like ISIS. He has called on state and territory governments to introduce new laws that prevent convicted terrorists from leaving jail once they have finished their sentence if they are still perceived to present risk to the community.

The new Parliament will introduce the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2016, originally introduced in November last year. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has made 21 recommendations on the previous bill, and which the Coalition, following consultation with the States and Territories, has accepted.

The bill will include provisions that allow for control orders to be placed on persons 14 years or older with appropriate safeguards. The age was lowered as recommended following the shooting of NSW police’s Curtis Cheng, a 17-year veteran of the police’s finance department who was shot dead by 15-year-old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar in October.

“The global terrorism threat environment is growing more challenging,” Turnbull said in a statement. “The recent attacks in Nice and Orlando show an increase in the frequency and severity of terrorism in the West or against Western interests. And the weekend terrorist attack on civilians in Kabul was the deadliest in 15 years.”

He continued, “Our law enforcement and security agencies are among the best in the world, but we have to ensure they have the powers they need.”

The extended detention mentioned above will be subject to reviews and appeals. Attorney-General George Brandis said it will only apply to individuals approaching the end of their sentence and who continue to pose an “unacceptably high risk” to the society because of their failure to be rehabilitated inside prison.

It will be a court-supervised process with regular reviews and assessments. The process is similar to arrangements applied to sex offenders and extremely violent individuals.

The bill will also introduce a new offence of advocating genocide to further respond to the negative impact on the community of people preaching hate.

Turnbull said the states have agreed in principle for the Commonwealth to lead the process at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April.