Peter Dutton in new bid for tougher terror laws

Peter Dutton could strip the citizenship of dual-­national terrorists under new legislation.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton would have tough new powers to strip the citizenship of dual-­national terrorists, covering a larger pool of people, under strengthened ­national security legislation to be introduced to parliamen­t on Thursday.

The new legislation contains a new threshold for terror-related conduct and extends the applic­ation of the bill by targeting some terrorism offences committed as far back as 2003.

The changes mean the legislation will now cover the period immediately after the Howard government included terrorism offences in the criminal code following the 9/11 attacks on the US.

The conviction threshold will be reduced from six years to three years in a further effort to capture those who may have received lesser sentences for terrorism crimes.

The new provisions go further than a bill proposed last November — but never pursued by the government — which sought to tighten the citizenship cessation laws in relation to terrorism.

Fourteen dual nationals, including­ Islamic State fighter Neil Prakash, have had their citizen­ship revoked under existing laws but this number is expected to rise with the passage of the proposed­ amendments.

The shake-up is driven by govern­ment concerns that a number­ of high-risk offenders and people with a history of engagement in terrorism-related conduct are not covered by existing laws.

The most significant change to the existing legislation will be a move to a ministerial decision-making model that gives the Home Affairs Minister alone the power to revoke citizenship, based on intelligence advice and a broader assessment of conduct.

It will mark a move from an “operation of law” model, under which a dual national’s Aust­ralian citizenship was renounced through their own actions or conduct based on recommendations of the Citizenship Loss Board.

The government would not reveal­ on Wednesday who or how many individuals were on the radar under the new laws, but it is believed to include both foreign fighters still in Syria as well as onshore offenders.

Under the current regime, the minister is unable to reverse a decision­ of the Citizenship Loss Board and is merely required to “note” the decision to give it effect. The proposed new provisions would allow the minister to reverse­, decline or change a recom­mendation from the board.

Mr Dutton is expected to introduce the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019 to the House of Representatives on Thursday.

In a bid to broaden the scope of the current laws, three important thresholds will be changed. The requirement that a person has to be sentenced to six years or more for terror offences after December 12, 2015, and 10 years or more for offences after December 12, 2005, will be scrapped.

The new laws would capture anyone convicted and sentenced to three years or more after May 29, 2003, making them consistent with the date on which terrorism offences were first enacted under the criminal code.

The provision relating to those known to have been engaged in terror-related conduct but without convictions — such as foreign fighters — will also be backdated from December 12, 2015, to May 29, 2003.

The change would allow the minister to take into account a much broader picture of a person’s conduct in considering whether to cease their Australian citizenship.

The Australian understands that the amendment bill has been referred to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security­, which is conducting an inquiry into the operation of the current laws introduced in 2015 in the Australian Citizenship Amend­ment (Allegiance to Aust­ralia) Act.

Mr Dutton and Scott Morrison sought to introduce a similar bill last November, which went further by removing the sentencing threshold completely, but did not include backdating offences or terror­-related conduct to 2003. It also did not include the scope of expanded powers for the minister.

The proposed amendments include­ safeguards that provide a 90-day ministerial review period, which would enable the minister to reinstate a person’s citizenship if it were deemed in the public interest­. There was also an automatic reinstatement provision under certain but unspecified circum­stances.

Labor supported the 2015 laws after being given assurances from attorney-general George Brandis that the laws were constitutional.

In a submission to the PJCIS review­, ASIO said last week that it considered stripping citizenship to be “a legislative measure that worked alongside a number of other tools to protect Australia and Australians from terrorism”.

In a submission to the current National Security Legislation Monitor review of the citizenship cessation laws, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute questioned the effectiveness of stripping foreign fighters of citizenship and argued it displaced terrorism.

The ASPI submission said: “The assumption that citizenship removal will act as a deterrent to dual-national Australians or perma­nent residents considering undertaking acts of terrorism or travel to become foreign fighters, or as an effective risk mitigation measure for Australia’s security needs to be reconsidered. There is no substantive empirical evidence supporting the claim that such measures work to support it.”

The government claims it has legal advice that ensured that it was consistent with human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.