While the change was approved by cabinet after a heated meeting in which even greater executive powers to cancel citizenship were rejected, the legislation is still being drafted and is yet to come before Parliament. However, speaking to Sky News on Thursday, Mr Dutton confirmed he would have the power to cancel a person's citizenship on advice from security agencies, with the only restriction being they must have other citizenship so they cannot be left stateless. He also said his decision would be subject to judicial review although only to ensure that the process was legally conducted by the minister and that such a review would not go to the substance of the case itself. Eager not to be caught on the wrong side of the national security debate, Labor remains cautiously supportive over the changes, backing in principle the modernisation of the Citizenship Act to allow for cancellation where a person is found to be fighting with non-state enemies such as terrorist organisations. However, it has withheld final judgment on the exercise by a minister of what is effectively a judicial power regarding cancellation of citizenship.

While the opposition said it wanted to see the legislation first, the equivocation has allowed the government to attack the opposition as less committed to tough action on terrorism, and brought counter-claims from Labor MPs that the government was "dog-whistling" despite clear bipartisanship. But the dramatic extension of ministerial power could yet be struck down if it is found to be unconstitutional, and has divided not just the parties but the upper echelons of the government itself – leading to last week's detailed cabinet leaks. In question time on Thursday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten cited section 70 of the Crimes Act and asked, "What action has the Prime Minister taken to address the serious leaks from his cabinet regarding national security?" But Tony Abbott hit back, criticising Mr Shorten's earlier characterisation of the government's stance on national security as "dog whistling". "I am absolutely delighted to get a question from the Leader of the Opposition about last week's cabinet meeting because last week's cabinet meeting made a decision, a clear decision to strengthen our national security," he said.

"We made a clear decision last week to strip citizenship from terrorists with dual nationality because we believe that anyone who takes a gun and a knife to an Australian because of who we are has utterly forfeited any right to be considered one of us." Mr Shorten, in turn, accused the Prime Minister of "persistently undermining constructive partisanship on national security". But Mr Abbott shot back that "if the Leader of the Opposition and other frontbenchers have said that after eight days of playing politics they are prepared to support the legislation that we will bring in in the next week or so, I ask simply why did he call it dog whistling yesterday? "We will provide all appropriate briefings in a timely fashion to the opposition [on the forthcoming legislation]." Labor Deputy Leader eader Tanya Plibersek then pressed Mr Abbott on whether he had referred the leak to the federal police.

But the Prime Minister said Labor could ask him any number of questions about process and "who said what, when and what was decided by whom under what circumstances. "They can ask me any number of those insider questions and all my answers will be about what matters to the people of Australia, and what matters to the people of Australia is that this government knows where it stands on national security". Follow us on Twitter