Torture will be explicitly prohibited in new counter-terrorism laws, Attorney-General George Brandis says

Updated

New counter-terrorism laws to bolster the powers of security agencies will be changed to allay crossbench fears the original legislation would have allowed suspects to be tortured.

MPs have returned to Canberra after a two-week break to find tighter security arrangements at Parliament House because of increased concerns about potential threats to the building.

The Government is preparing to introduce its second round of legislative ammunition against terrorism on Wednesday.

The new bill will target so-called foreign fighters and will make it an offence to travel to certain locations deemed to be involved in "terrorist activity" without an "innocuous" reason.

It will prohibit "terrorism" rather than an individual act of terrorism and make it an offence to promote or encourage terrorism.

It will also loosen the criteria for authorities to be granted control orders and search warrants.

But the first counter-terrorism bill, introduced in July and due to be debated in the Senate this week, will face changes.

It would give officers working on special operations immunity from prosecution providing they do not cause death, serious injury or commit a sexual offence.

Key Senate crossbencher David Leyonhjelm had raised concerns the provision could allow Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) agents to torture suspects.

He warned the Government he would withdraw support for all legislation unless it was changed.

Family First Senator Bob Day agreed changes need to be made.

Bill was carefully drafted: Attorney-General

Attorney-General George Brandis rejected the concerns, but said he would change the bill to "avoid the debate being diverted".

"I don't want the discussion of this important issue to be diverted by an issue that is effectively a red herring," he said.

"So this morning, in consultation with the Director-General [of ASIO] and in consultation with the Prime Minister, I've decided to add an explicit prohibition in relation to torture so far as concerns special intelligence operations.

"I want to stress that there is absolutely no necessary legal reason to do this."

New ASIO chief Duncan Lewis, who has been in the job for a week, embraced the change.

It did the Government no harm to rule out torture, finally, conclusively. Senate crossbencher David Leyonhjelm

"The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has never practised torture," he said.

"It does not practise torture and it never will.

"And for that reason, I'm perfectly happy that this addition be placed into the proposed legislation."

Senator Leyonhjelm has welcomed the decision but is still planning to vote against the first round of counter-terror laws.

"It's what I wanted," he said.

"It did the Government no harm to rule out torture, finally, conclusively.

"I think it was necessary, I think it's a very important point that Australian authorities not ever have the power to torture."

But he is still worried about the legislation's impact on freedom of the press.

"The potential is there for a journalist or a blogger who writes about a special intelligence operation to go to jail for 10 years," he said.

"I don't like it and I would like it to be removed."

But he said those concerns were not "in the same league as torture".

Senator Brandis said the Government had been "very careful" not to over-reach when drafting the bill.

"My approach to this has always been to give the agencies and the police the powers they need, but also to give them no more than they need," he said.

"This has been a measured process."

The Attorney-General said he was confident the bill would pass, but Labor has held back giving full support until it has seen the detailed legislation.

Topics: terrorism, laws, law-crime-and-justice, federal-parliament, parliament, government-and-politics, australia

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