Labor against terror law

LABOR will not support new laws making it easier to cancel the Australian citizenships of dual national terrorists.

The Opposition yesterday took the rare step of splitting with the Coalition over national security legislation.

Labor members of Federal Parliament’s intelligence committee, which has a long history of bipartisanship, issued a minority report indicating they would not support the laws.

Dual nationals sentenced to at least six years’ jail for terror offences can already be stripped of their Australian citizenship.

The Coalition wants to scrap this six-year threshold and expand the range of offences on which it can rely.

The Opposition saw some merit in lowering the legislative bar required to cut extremists adrift.

However Labor committee members are concerned the draft laws are likely to be unconstitutional.

The laws would significantly lower the threshold around proving a person’s citizenship of another country.

Under the changes, the minister would only need to be “reasonably satisfied” a person may be entitled to citizenship elsewhere.

The Labor Party also expressed “serious doubts” about the ability of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to exercise the expanded powers in a responsible manner.