Australia is seeking to strip terrorists of their citizenship

AUSTRALIA revealed plans yesterday to increase government powers to strip citizenship from extremists and to control the movements of Australian fighters who return home from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlined the contentious bills, some of which he wants passed in the final two-week parliamentary session of the year that begins on Monday.

He also wants passed in the same session draft cybersecurity laws that would force global technology companies such as Facebook and Google to help police unscramble encrypted messages sent by criminals.

Rights advocates have raised privacy concerns about the cybersecurity bill which is being scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.

“People who commit acts of terrorism have rejected absolutely everything that this country stands for,” Morrison said.

The extremist threat to Australia was highlighted two weeks ago when a Somali-born Australian, whom police say was inspired by the Islamic State group, fatally stabbed one man and injured two others before police shot the assailant dead on a downtown Melbourne street.

This week, three Australian men of Turkish descent were charged with planning an Islamic State group-inspired mass-casualty attack in Melbourne which would likely have happened over the busy Christmas period. Police said the plot had been thwarted with the arrests.

Nine convicted extremists and Australians suspected of fighting with extremists overseas have had their Australian citizenships revoked since the government changed citizenship laws in 2015. The changes only apply to dual nationals so that losing Australian citizenship does not render a suspect stateless.

The proposed changes would further loosen the rules concerning the circumstances in which citizenship can be revoked. The amendments would do away with a requirement that a dual national convicted of a terrorism offence would need to be sentenced to at least six years in prison. The conviction itself would be enough to lose Australian citizenship.