Terrorists could be kept in Australia for intelligence

The Government wants to make it easier to have dual-citizen convicted terrorist kicked out of the country. But spy agency ASIO say there are some offenders they want kept close by.

SPY agency ASIO wants to make sure certain terrorists are not deported, under proposed national security laws.

They fear changes to the proposed laws could see them lose potential informants, or even prevent the prosecution of suspected terrorists.

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The Federal Government wants to halve the amount of time a convicted dual-national terrorist must spend in prison before they can be stripped of citizenship from six years to three.

But controversially the retrospective laws would also give Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton more power over who is considered a dual national and whether they could be kicked out of the country.

Labor and some legal bodies have argued against giving the Minister these powers.

But Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation warned against halving the prison time required, without giving the Minister the ultimate decision of citizenship.

“Citizenship cessation due to conviction or conduct from 2003 may capture individuals … (for) whom there are factors that mean it would not be in the national interest for their citizenship to cease,” ASIO has submitted to a Parliamentary committee.

ASIO deputy director-general Heather Cook said the discretion to keep a terrorist in the country could be “exploited for operational benefit”, when asked by Senator Kristina Keneally if it could be used to help gather intelligence.

“That could be a circumstance where the better outcome would be to have somebody retain their citizenship,” Ms Cook said.

She said there were also some terrorism-related charges which required the suspect to be an Australian citizen to be prosecuted.

“The way the law currently operates … it could nullify the evidence that would allow a prosecution or extradition to take place,” Ms Cook said.

Home Affairs Department assistant secretary Derek Bopping said that since 2001 there were 17 Australians who had been convicted of terrorism charges who had been sentenced to between three and six years prison.

No checks have been conducted on whether those 17 people are also dual citizens.

The committee heard there could be a small number of people who would be captured by the retrospectivity of the changes who may currently be offshore.