Dutton to flag overhaul of Brandis terror laws

Peter Dutton will push to rewrite flawed foreign-allegiance laws.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP

Peter Dutton will push to rewrite flawed foreign-allegiance laws, claiming their purpose to strip dual-national terrorists of Australian citizenship has failed with only one known jihadist to have been subjected to the laws in the two years they have been in effect.

The Home Affairs Minister also signals that further counter- terrorism assets including ASIO, the foreign intelligence agency ASIS and the Australian Federal Police will be deployed to the Middle East and Indonesia, in a push to capture foreign fighters attempting to return home and to ensure they do not reach the Australian border.

In his first major speech since the creation of the new national security super-agency, Mr Dutton will outline his priorities as the country’s first Minister for Home Affairs, flagging a major review of the foreign-allegiance laws, claiming it is easier to strip lesser criminals of citizenship than it is Australians engaged in terrorism.

“I am concerned that legislation to strip the Australian citizenship of dual nationals engaged in terrorism is not working as it should,” Mr Dutton will say in his speech today to the National Press Club.

“We know there are dual citizens among Australians fighting with terrorists in the Middle East and yet officials have so far confirmed only one has lost their citizenship under the operation of the law.

“It is far easier to strip the Australian citizenship of a dual national who simply lied in their application to become an Australian citizen, for example, by failing to declare a criminal conviction.

“I don’t think the difference makes sense to Australians concerned by the prospect of battle-hardened extremists returning here.

“The application of the law needs to be reviewed.”

Former attorney-general ­George Brandis successfully ­argued for amendments to the laws ­proposed under the Abbott government amid fears they could render people stateless.

Significant flaws since identified include the onus on the government to prove the dual nationality of a person, a process frustrated by the difficulties in obtaining information from foreign countries, as well as the 28-day notification period for terrorists currently in Australian jails. This notification gives the detainee time in which to renounce their foreign citizenship triggering the stateless person conditions.

There have been 38 dual nationals stripped of their citizenship since 1949. Of those, 22 have been cancelled by Mr Dutton since he took over the immigration portfolio in 2014. All but one of those have been for fraud or previous criminal offences such as sexual offences against children.

Terrorist Khaled Sharrouf is the only Australian to have been stripped of citizenship under the new laws. He was later killed in a missile strike in Syria.

Constitutional experts have warned that the laws might not be constitutional and would eventually be tested in the High Court.

The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor identified dual citizenship as a problem for the government in tackling foreign fighters and recommended in 2014 that dual citizenship should be scrapped.

Mr Dutton has also signalled that, under the Office of Home Affairs, counter-terrorism efforts would be increased offshore to tackle the foreign fighters returning from Syria to our region. “Of the 220 or so Australians who travelled to the Middle East to fight with or support terrorist groups since 2012, agencies estimate around 110 Australians are still active,” he will say in his speech.

“The government is determined to deal with these people as far from our shores as possible, to ensure that if they do return it is with forewarning and into the hands of authorities.

“The AFP, working with domestic and international partners, has obtained 20 first instance arrest warrants relating to persons of interest to CT operations.

“Border Force and other officials are working with their counterparts to detect foreign fighters returning to our shores and our region — where more Australians have died at the hands of terrorists than anywhere else and some of our best partners in the fight are to be found.”

Mr Dutton will claim that national security agencies, including intelligence and policing, are now better resourced with $1.5 billion invested in their capabilities since 2014

“But even after the defeat of ISIS as a force on the battlefield, its capacity to radicalise individuals into perpetrators of indiscriminate carnage here and abroad remains a threat,” Mr Dutton will say.