Extremists to be banned from CBD under state opposition plan

Potential terrorists could be monitored via GPS tracking and banned from Melbourne’s CBD, under new restrictions promised by the state opposition.

Potential terrorists could be banned from Melbourne’s CBD, under new restrictions promised by the state opposition.

Coalition leader Matthew Guy this morning promised a raft of counter-terrorism measures, including new restriction orders.

Police would be able to apply to the Magistrates’ or Children’s courts for a radicalised person to be slapped with an order.

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Under an order, potential extremists could be monitored via GPS tracking, prevented from entering exclusion zones or forced to undergo deradicalisation programs.

Mr Guy said the $89.5 million measures would also train 100 existing police officers in advanced counter-terrorism, and add 50 extra analysts and surveillance staff to the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre and Counter Terrorism Command.

Extremists like Hassan Khalif Shire Ali would be subject to the order under the opposition plan. Picture: Supplied

Eight dedicated patrol teams, each with four officers, would also hit the streets in Melbourne’s CBD.

Opposition counter-terrorism spokesman Robert Clark said the restriction orders were recommended by the Harper-Lay review, commissioned following the Brighton terror attack.

He said police could nominate someone for a restriction order for a range of reasons, including having their passports cancelled like Bourke St attacker Hassan Khalif Shire Ali.

“Last week’s terrorist attack has exposed serious gaps in the armoury of the counter-terrorism measures here in Victoria,” he said.

“Shire Ali would have been a person who would have qualified for the making of such an order.

“It is clear that he had become radicalised and was a person of concern to Victoria Police.”

While Mr Clark said there was “a very significant gap in the line-up” of Victoria’s counter-terrorism orders, he stopped short of criticising the efforts of authorities in the lead up to Friday’s attack.

A woman lays flowers at a makeshift memorial for Bourke St attack victim Sisto Malaspina. Picture: AAP

The Herald Sun revealed that Shire Ali had slipped through the net, despite his online activities having been monitored by ASIO.

Mr Guy said today that he would never “accept” violent extremism, and faced a series of questions about whether he was suggesting Premier Daniel Andrews had.

Over the weekend, Liberal candidate in Yan Yean Meralyn Klein shared a statement from Mr Guy on Facebook and said it was “fantastic to have a leader that stands up against these attacks instead of endorsing them.”

Mr Guy said he hadn’t seen Ms Klein’s comment.

“It’s straightforward whether you accept it (violent extremism) as part of a contemporary Australia. I do not,” he said.

“I don’t surrender or wave the white flag at one incident of terrorism, violent extremism or any form of crime in Victoria.”

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