ALMOST all of the wannabe terrorists who have snuck out of Australia to join jihadist armies in Iraq and Syria were on the dole or some form of welfare payment, The Saturday Telegraph can reveal.

A federal investigation into the welfare status of Australian foreign fighters, prompted last year by revelations in The Telegraph, shows 96 per cent had been on welfare benefits when they fled to the Middle East.

Most had continued to collect payments from Australian taxpayers while training with Islamic State to become terrorists intent on wanting to kill Australians.

The investigation has captured the records of 57 Australians who left the country before October last year to fight with the Islamic State.

Of that number 55 have been confirmed to have been on welfare payments.

media_camera Prime minister Tony Abbott.

Since then, an estimated 50 more Australians have ­illegally travelled to the Middle East to join IS, with most believed to have been claiming some form of benefit.

A subsequent audit of this group confirmed that most had been at one time in ­receipt of benefits such as Newstart, sickness, youth and carer’s allowances, as well as the Disability Support Pension.

Writing exclusively in The Telegraph today, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was “appalled” that the majority of those Australians joining terror groups had benefited from the welfare system.

“As a nation, we were ­repulsed when images started appearing in the media last year of Australian members of the Islamist death cult gloating over the corpses of their victims and brandishing severed heads,” he wrote.

“I was equally appalled when I was briefed last September that 55 out of 57 Australians then believed to be fighting in Syria and Iraq with ISIL and other terrorist groups had been on some form of welfare, including the Disability Support Pension.”

Mr Abbott will on Monday deliver his first national security address to the nation. He will announce a new counter-terrorism taskforce and further laws to tighten the noose on fanatical groups promoting extremism in Australia.

The Telegraph first revealed the case of Khaled Sharrouf, who fled Australia as a DSP recipient in late 2013 on a false passport to join ­IS. The revelations that he had been claiming benefits while training to behead people prompted the government to impose new laws in October last year giving the government the power to stop welfare payments to anyone deemed a national security risk.

The Telegraph has also revealed that the offices of a doctor who had helped Khaled Sharrouf get DSP had been raided by the AFP.

Security revamp to boost terror battle

ASIO chief and former army general Duncan Lewis could become the country’s first counterterrorism tsar under a shake-up of Australia’s national security architecture.

The federal government is expected to announce next week that it will use the same joint task force model that it used to stop the boats to stop terrorism.

The counterterrorism Joint Agency Task Force would oversee all spy agencies including ASIO and ASIS, the Australian Federal Police counterterrorism unit as well as border protection and immigration.

media_camera Major General Duncan Lewis.

Senior Government confirmed Mr Lewis was being considered for the job but no decision had yet been made.

The JATF would report directly to the National Security Committee of cabinet, which is chaired by the prime minister.

A review of the national security agencies ordered by Prime Minister Tony Abbott last year is believed to have recommended the JATF model over the creation of an office of Homeland Security, which was first proposed more than a decade ago.

The Daily Telegraph revealed last year that the government was considering two options to bring all the spy agencies and counterterrorism forces under one umbrella and had flagged that former Major General Lewis could be appointed to lead it. But the PM demanded a review of existing intelligence sharing between the agencies before a final decision was made.

Mr Abbott is expected to announce the creation of the JTAF in his first address to the nation on national security when parliament resumes on Monday. He is also expected to announce further tightening of laws to ban extremist groups preaching hatred and promoting terrorism.