Peter Dutton pushing Bill Shorten into a security retreat

Labor, after threatening a rare dissenting report, could now be ready to water down on its views over national security legislation.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton during Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Labor was last night scrambling to avoid a major split with the government over national security legislation that aims to strip terrorists of their citizenship as the opposition came under fresh attack from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

A parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security report on the government’s bill is expected as soon as today after Labor earlier this week threatened it could issue a rare dissenting report — a signal the party was altogether opposed to the bill.

But sources last night told The Australian Labor could back down and instead issue a watered-down minority report, supporting substantive parts of the laws, but raising concerns about the section dealing with how terrorists were determined to be dual citizens by the minister of the day.

Labor this week released legal advice from Peter Hanks QC echoing the view of constitutional law experts George Williams and Kim Rubenstein that the legislation could be unconstitutional.

Mr Dutton last night repeated an earlier warning, accusing Bill Shorten of using technicalities to avoid supporting the laws.

“If Mr Shorten and Mr Dreyfus want to run the lawyer line to look for some technicality to allow these people to come into country that is an issue for them, but I can promise you it is not and never will be the policy of this government,” he told The Australian.

“I will do everything within Australian law to stop those terrorists (foreign fighters) coming back into our country.”

Mr Dutton insisted government legal advice contradicted constitutional experts.

“The fact is, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel drafted the bill. The chief general counsel of the Australian Government Solicitor provided advice on the bill.”

Mr Shorten has mostly dodged major disputes with the government over national security laws, viewing it as difficult political ground for the party.

But Labor this week also signalled it wished to battle the Coalition and push for broader changes to the encryption laws it helped pass last year.

Parliament’s security and intelligence committee met a few times yesterday to discuss the final report on the citizenship laws.

The bill would extend the powers of the Home Affairs Minister to strip convicted terrorists in Australia of citizenship if they are deemed a dual national.

Senate leader Penny Wong said this week that Labor wanted to prevent Mr Dutton growing his powers and also said the bill could cause diplomatic difficulties.

“You don’t make Australians safer by giving an incompetent minister in Peter Dutton more powers,” she told ABC radio.

Some Labor MPs have signalled their opposition to the laws. Labor MP Mike Kelly previously said that since authorities already had extra powers to fight terrorists, moves to strip citizenship from criminals in Australia were being introduced for political reasons.

This week the government ­tabled amendments to laws that give authorities greater access to messages sent over encrypted messaging apps, which police say they need to keep track of terrorists and other criminals.

Labor has agreed to these, but has tabled five further amendments to the laws and opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus vowed to pursue even more changes later in the year.

Australian technology companies are strongly opposed to the encryption laws.

On Tuesday, companies including Atlassian and Canva said they granted authorities “globally unprecedented powers” that have “created a harmful perception of Australian technology to consumers overseas”.