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August 28, 2023
The Coalition is demanding Labor urgently establish a national convicted terrorist offender register to protect Australians and fight terrorism, with eight convicted terrorists due to be released into the community between October and mid-next year.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said a national register – which the Coalition committed $20m towards ahead of the 2022 federal election – would impose long-term obligations on all convicted terrorists who have been released.
After being probed at senate estimates in May on whether Labor intended to proceed with such a scheme, the Attorney-General’s Department last month told Senator Paterson: “The government will consider implementation of a national convicted terrorist offenders register once it has received advice from agencies on this issue.” Senator Paterson called on the government to be transparent with Australians about the steps it was taking to manage any risks associated with the soon-to-be-released convicted terrorists and engage with the communities in which these individuals will live about their concerns.
The terrorism threat level in Australia remains “possible”.
“Labor needs to urgently get on with the job of protecting Australians from convicted terrorists who are released from prison, and implement the register,” Senator Paterson told The Australian.
“The Albanese government needs to be upfront about why it is taking them so long to get the register established, and whether the delay is just another side effect of Labor’s disastrous decision to gut the Department of Home Affairs.
“This decision has seen the time taken to list a terrorist organisation blow out fourfold, with the Minister (Clare O’Neil) responsible for fighting terrorism being secretly stripped of key aspects of her role which seems to have been given to the Attorney-General (Mark Dreyfus).”
Nowroz Amin, who plotted to carry out a terrorist attack in Bangladesh, is due to be released in October after being sentenced to five years and four months in prison (backdated to his arrest in June 2018).
Mr Amin and seven other convicted terrorists – including self-proclaimed religious sheik Abdul Nacer Benrbika, who was convicted in 2005 for plotting terrorist attacks on major Australian cities – are due to be released and eligible for the High Risk Terrorist Offender scheme. The HRTO, set up by the Morrison government in 2021, ensures terrorist offenders who are released into the community at the end of their jail sentences are closely supervised, based on the level of risk they pose to the community.
Spokesmen for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said agencies were preparing advice for government on the implementation of a national convicted terrorist offender register.
“Despite the obvious need for ongoing funding to manage continuing threats and keep Australia safe, the former government treated the High Risk Terrorist Offender regime as a terminating measure, with funding ending on 30 June 2023,” the spokesman said.
“The Albanese government has begun to fix the former government’s mishandling of this critical matter by providing funding certainty for the management of offenders at the conclusion of their custodial sentences, including $130.1 million over two years from 2023-2024.
“Unlike the former government,which repeatedly left the listing of terrorist organisations so late they were on the verge of expiring, the Albanese government ensures these are dealt with properly, and methodically, and has ensured that at all times the listing of registered terrorist organisations is maintained without a gap.”