AUSTRALIANS will be scanned leaving the country as well as on arrival following a new terrorist threat assessment warning of a potential repeat of the 2002 Bali bombing.

Facial recognition and biometric screening will be rolled out at airport departure gates across the country in response to potential new threats.

A crack team of 80 national security officers, tapped into spy and counter terrorism agencies, will be deployed to every major airport to deal with potential threats and ensure suspected terrorists neither leave nor enter the country.

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media_camera A biometric scanner / Picture: Supplied

Finger printing technology at the departure and arrival gates will follow the early roll out of e-gates for all departures from major airports in a move that will close the gap which allowed convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf to slip out of the county last year.

The news comes as Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday announced his decision not to water down sections of the Racial Discrimination Act.

media_camera Buildings and cars on fire in Kuta in 2002 / Picture: Supplied

The PM announced the backdown saying the government needed to have closer consultations with the Muslim community to prevent Australians from travelling overseas to join jihadi terror groups.

media_camera Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Attorney General George Brandis / Picture: AFP

The Daily Telegraph has learned that airlines will also be drafted into a new national security net and asked to provide advance passenger departure information to authorities to screen for those deemed a risk before they get to the airport.

The border security package, which would also shorten airport queues for legitimate travellers, was approved by cabinet yesterday as part of a $600 million counter terrorism funding boost.

It followed a new terrorist threat assessment provided to senior ministers which warned of the potential of a repeat of the 2002 Bali bombing — but carried out by better trained and more sophisticated terrorists.

A senior government intelligence official yesterday revealed a global threat assessment warned of not only jihadists returning to Australia from Syria and Iraq but also of the potential for a new wave of terrorist networks to emerge in Indonesia.

“We will be dealing with the consequences of this for years to come,” the official said. “Our worry is that history will repeat.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Attorney-General George Brandis and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday unveiled a second tranche of counter terrorism laws, as first revealed by The Daily Telegraph.

media_camera Khaled Sharouf / Picture: Facebook media_camera Mohamed Elomar / Picture: Facebook

The news laws will make it a crime for any Australian to travel to a designated terrorist zone such as Iraq or Syria without a valid reason and will give the Australian Federal Police broader powers of arrest. But a new definition of terrorism under the Crimes Act will also make it a crime to promote terrorism.

Sources claimed this meant the estimated 150 people in Australia now on a watch list for funding, recruiting or promoting for terrorist groups in the Middle East could be arrested immediately if they continued their activities when new laws came in. Ms Bishop will also be given powers to suspend passports at short notice.

Mr Abbott said community consultation was central to the rollout of new laws, recognising the potential for concern among the Muslim community.

The Opposition offered only qualified bipartisan support for the government’s proposals.