Federal Government Will Reintroduce Terrorism Control Order Bill And Discuss Indefinite Detention With States
Thursday 4 August 2016 @ 11.38 a.m. | Crime
The Federal Government has announced it will be re-introducing the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) in the next session of Parliament, after accepting all 21 recommendations into the Bill that were put forward by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC News he believed the legislation would have “overwhelming support around the country”:
"In the wake of Orlando, Nice and other terrorist incidents — as well as our own experience since September 2014, resulting in the charging of 44 persons — we cannot for a moment be complacent… the measures we are announcing today are designed to deter terrorism, prevent it, ensure that the nation and our people are kept safe and to provide reassurance that Australians can and should continue going about their daily lives and enjoying their freedom in the usual way."
The Bill amends the control order scheme to apply to young people from the age of 14 years, with some restrictions, and introduces a new offence of advocating genocide. For a detailed overview of the 2015 bill and the report from the Parliamentary Joint Committee, see TimeBase’s earlier articles.
States To Discuss Indefinite Detention Scheme
The Federal Government is also calling a meeting of all the State and Territory Attorneys-General to enact a ‘post-sentence preventative detention legislation’ scheme that would enable convicted terrorist offenders to undergo indefinite detention even after their sentences are complete. A media release described it as:
“a court supervised process with regular reviews and reassessments, similar to arrangements that apply in a number of jurisdictions for sex offenders and for extremely violent individuals.”
In addition, Attorney-General Brandis told ABC News that there would be an annual report to Parliament on the number of orders granted, and that the scheme would be reviewed after an initial period of operation.
According to the release, the COAG meeting in April led to an agreement in principle from the states for the Federal Government to lead the process.
George Williams, the Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales, told ABC News that precedents set out in High Court cases with regards to high-risk sex offenders meant the Commonwealth needed to ensure this kind of legislation was passed by the States, rather thant he Commonwealth:
“The Queensland scheme for high-risk sex offenders [challenged by was valid, but what the Court also indicated is that it might not be valid if it was passed by the Federal Parliament, that perhaps this could only be a state scheme… That's the reason why we're seeing the Commonwealth not deciding to go it alone, they're negotiating with the states and territories.”
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told ABC News that the legislation would need “strict checks and balances” for it to be supported by Labor:
“I'm encouraged by the approach taken by the Government so far on proposed national post-sentence detention legislation… It's likely to be a controversial measure in many quarters and a careful approach is necessary, in particular I note the Government's insistence that post-sentence detention orders would be made the subject of court review and of course also subject to periodic review as the Prime Minister made clear this morning.”
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