UCKG NEWS: AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER STRENGTHENS TERROR LAWS
Added: (Sat Aug 06 2005)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
JOHN Howard has signalled harsher penalties for inciting terrorism and longer detention for terror suspects, warning that Australians will have to accept further curbs on civil liberties to thwart deadly attacks.
Sweeping changes to terror laws, including granting police wider powers to arrest and detain suspects, will be the focus of a terror summit of state and territory leaders to be held in Canberra next month.
Unveiling plans for the summit yesterday, the Prime Minister dismissed concerns over cuts to civil liberties, saying he was focused on protecting lives.
"The most important civil liberty I have, and you have, is to stay alive and to be free from violence and death," he said. "I think when people talk about civil liberties they sometimes forget that action taken to protect the citizen against physical violence and physical attack is a blow in favour and not a blow against civil liberties."
Treasurer Peter Costello said migrants who disagreed with Australian laws should leave.
"We're one country under one law - it's that simple," he said. "Don't come here if you don't accept Australian law. Don't come here if you don't accept the parliamentary system and democracy."
Mr Howard's comments were echoed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who last night unveiled a raft of tough measures to crack down on terrorism in the wake of last month's London bomb attacks.
Mr Blair said Britain would consider amending its Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, to make it easier to deport people involved in inciting terrorism. Under the new laws, anyone who had been involved in terrorism would be refused asylum in Britain.
His Government would immediately outlaw Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation that says it is dedicated to creating an Islamic caliphate centred on the Middle East but does not support violence.
The Hizb ut-Tahrir's Australian chapter has not been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Howard Government. In Auburn last month, one of its teachers, Soadad Doureihi, told Sydney Muslims to "reject all ideas, actions and practices other than Islam".
A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock last night said ASIO continued to take a close interest in any individuals or groups involved in terrorist activity. "No case for banning Hizb ut-Tahrir has been put to the Attorney-General," the spokesman said.
Mr Blair said his Government would also ban a successor organisation to al-Muhajiroun, a group that celebrated the September 11 attacks on the US but is meant to have disbanded.
Mr Howard said he was "currently assessing (his) attitude" to tougher laws against people who incited terrorism. "I wouldn't be calling this meeting if I didn't think they, at the very least, required a further review." He said laws relating to detaining terror suspects would also be discussed at the special Council of Australian Governments meeting next month. However, he did not believe a British proposal for suspects to be detained for three months was appropriate.
Among other matters Mr Howard wants discussed at the meeting - requested by the state premiers in a letter sent last month - are the concept of a national identity card, tighter security for public transport and efforts to boost community understanding of the threat posed by terrorism.
The tougher measures are endorsed in a review of Australia's counter-terrorism arrangements by Mr Ruddock following the London bomb attacks. It will be presented to cabinet's powerful National Security Committee next week.
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