A former Australian military commander is calling for people on terrorism watch lists to be locked up without trial while authorities gather evidence against them.

Retired Royal Australian Army major general Jim Molan made the call for indefinite detention without conviction in certain cases while declaring: "It's time to give up even more rights."

The call came before it was revealed a man gunned down in a shootout with police was acquitted of trying to blow up a Sydney army base in 2010.

It's a call commentators equate to prevention being better than a cure, but could the fierce prescription harm our civil liberties?

View photos Yacqub Khayre faced court in 2009 over a plot to bomb a Sydney army base. More

Weighing in on the former military top brass' call, 4BC radio host Ben Davis said we needed to ask what rights as a society "are we willing to give up to actually feel safe and secure?"

"It is about having a watch list and being able to act on it," Davis told Seven's Sunrise.

"We need to get some skin in the game here. And when you get some skin in the game sometimes you get a grazed knee. I'm happy to get the grazed knee.

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View photos Retired army major general Jim Molan - seen with Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison - is calling for harsh detention for those on terror watch lists. AAP More

"How many times have we seen or heard that they were on a watch list, but we don't have the ability to watch them?" the radio host said.

There are 400 people on a watch list in Australia, but that does not mean they are surveilled 24 hours a day, Molan said.

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