The Lindt cafe siege has sparked a rethink of anti-terror laws. Photo / AP
The Lindt cafe siege has sparked a rethink of anti-terror laws. Photo / AP
Militants told they may lose citizenship and benefits in clampdown on hate preaching.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has flagged a tougher stance on hate preaching and warned Australian citizenships could be revoked as he spelled out the worsening terrorist threat to the nation.
The Prime Minister outlined a number of steps to tackle terrorism in a speech at the Australian Federal Police headquarters in Canberra.
"The terrorist threat is rising at home and abroad and it's becoming harder to combat," Abbott said.
To date, 110 Australians have travelled overseas to join Isis (Islamic State), with 30 returning and at least 20 dead.
However, Abbott said there were at least 140 Isis supporters in Australia and the country faced a real risk of Australians returning as "hardened jihadists" intent on radicalising others.
Since September when the national terrorist threat level was lifted to "high" - meaning a terrorist attack is likely - 20 people have been arrested and charged.
Spy agency ASIO has more than 400 "high priority" counter-terrorism investigations under way - more than double the number a year ago.
Under changes to be brought in this year, returning foreign fighters will be prosecuted or monitored under control orders and could lose their citizenship and welfare benefits.
"Australians who take up arms with terrorist groups, especially while Australian military personnel are engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, have sided against their country and should be treated accordingly," Abbott said.
A national counter-terrorism co-ordinator will be appointed and the states will be included in the national strategy.
Abbott named the group Hizb ut-Tahrir as being among the organisations that will be targeted for "blatantly spreading discord and division".
"The Government will be taking action against hate preachers," he said.
Security agencies will be quarantined from the Government's efficiency dividend - regular spending cuts put in place to balance the budget.
Abbott said he could not promise a terrorist attack would never occur on Australian soil, but his Government would never underestimate the threat.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said the Opposition would consider the proposed changes.
"Labor believes that keeping Australia secure and our people safe is above politics," he said.
Meanwhile, Abbott says he's never been involved in any discussions about unilaterally sending troops into Iraq.
Tony Abbott has denied considering sending 3500 troops to fight Isis. Photo / AP
newspaper at the weekend reported that Abbott raised the idea of sending 3500 troops to Iraq to fight Isis at a meeting in November.
Shorten yesterday attempted to broaden the question as to whether Abbott ever participated in "any discussions for a unilateral deployment of troops to Iraq".
"No, I haven't," Abbott told Parliament.
He read to the House a statement from Chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin and Defence Department Secretary Dennis Richardson, who dismissed the story as false.
"At no point has the Prime Minister raised that idea with the ADF and/or the Department of Defence, formally or informally, directly or indirectly," the pair said.
Isis militants have released a video which appears to show caged Kurdish fighters being interviewed moments before their deaths.
With a microphone pushed through the bars of their cage, each man quietly repeats talking points about the righteousness of Isis' war in the Middle East and North Africa.
At one point, the nine-minute propaganda film shows more than a dozen prisoners being paraded through crowded streets of a northern Iraqi town near Kirkuk, with black-clad militants hanging to the cages.
Terror supporters
90
Australians at least fighting with and supporting terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria
