Indefinite detention for ‘terror’ passes
Tourist stabbed to death
SYDNEY, Dec 1, (Agencies): High-risk terror offenders in Australia may now be kept in jail even after serving their sentences, under legislation passed Thursday that strengthens laws to tackle the threat posed by extremists.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull flagged the move in July, prompted by the frequency and severity of attacks around the world.
It will allow Attorney-General George Brandis to apply for an extension 12 months before a sentence expires.
For this to happen, the Supreme Court would need to be satisfied that the offender poses an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence if released into the community.
“This bill strengthens the ability of our security agencies to continue to detain somebody if they’ve committed serious terrorism offences... and they have not been rehabilitated,” Justice Minister Michael Keenan told parliament.
“We are not going to allow people who haven’t been rehabilitated in prison to be released and then go on to harm our fellow Australians.”
The law is similar to arrangements already in place for sex offenders and extremely violent individuals in some states. There would be regular reviews and reassessments.
The passing of the High Risk Terrorist Offenders Bill was opposed by the Greens and Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, but had enough support to pass through the upper house Senate.
Leyonhjelm argued it was an unacceptable erosion of civil liberties.
“We should not be able to effectively impose life imprisonment on someone who was not originally sentenced to life imprisonment,” he said.
Turnbull
Operations
Keenan said that since September 2014 when Australia’s terror alert level was lifted to high, 55 people had been charged as a result of 24 counter-terrorism operations.
“Currently we have 40 people before the courts for terrorism-related offences,” he added.
“We’ve also had four attacks in Australia during this period, and because of the great work of our counter-terrorism authorities, we have stopped a further 11 attacks.”
A French tourist has died after being stabbed in the neck during an unprovoked attack when he and his wife pulled over on a highway in remote Australia, police said Thursday.
The pair were about an hour north of Alice Springs on the Stuart Highway on Wednesday afternoon when the man, whose age was not given, was killed.
“It is believed that two French tourists, being husband and wife, were at a rest stop 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the Aileron Roadhouse when they were approached by an unknown man,” said Detective Superintendent Travis Wurst.
“The man has allegedly then stabbed the male tourist to the neck, in an unprovoked attack. The male passed away at the scene.”
The attacker fled in a vehicle which was stopped soon after by police with the man running off into bushland. He was arrested on Thursday morning.
Police said the wife was being treated for shock at Alice Springs Hospital.
Australia’s parliament was hit by a second day of protests by anti-offshore detention centre activists Thursday with two people abseiling down the building to unfurl a banner reading “close the bloody camps now”.
While the pair scaled Parliament House a dozen others waded into a forecourt pond and added red dye to symbolise blood while holding placards calling for the closure of offshore immigration detention facilities.
It came a day after some 30 people disrupted parliamentary Question Time, chanting “close the camps” and “where is your moral compass?” with several supergluing their hands to the public viewing gallery railings.
Both of the protests were organised by grassroots organisation Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance. No charges have yet been brought against those who took part.
Widespread
Spokeswoman Zianna Fuad said to expect “widespread protest until the camps are closed”.
Canberra sends asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by sea to isolated Pacific outposts on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, with the camps’ conditions widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals.
Australia’s government struck a deal with a minor party on Thursday on a tax rate aimed at encouraging foreign travelers to pick fruit on the nation’s farms.
The conservative government and the left-wing Greens party reached a compromise on how much vacationers should be taxed on income earned picking farm produce next year, officials said.
The government would not go below a 15 percent rate for the so-called backpacker tax while the Greens had asked for 13 percent.
The compromise involved the government agreeing to take less tax from the travelers’ compulsory pension contributions. The government also offered an additional 100 million Australian dollars ($74 million) spending on the environment.
A veteran surfer escaped with foot and arm injuries after a great white shark rammed his board and dragged him underwater off Australia’s east coast on Thursday.
The 65-year-old managed to swim ashore and raise the alarm, before being airlifted to hospital in a stable condition.
“The surfer received puncture wounds to his foot and his arm,” New South Wales state police said of the incident at Seven Mile Beach near Forster, 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Sydney.
The state’s department of primary industries, which attended the scene, tweeted that “specialists have confirmed the shark involved in an incident off Booti Booti National Park this morning was a white shark”.
The Newcastle Herald reported it measured up to 3.5 metres (11 feet), with pictures showing a large chunk bitten off the man’s board, which split in half.