But the proposed changes would see them lose Australian citizenship if convicted of any terror-related offence, irrespective of a prison term.

Wider powers

A person can only lose their citizenship if they hold citizenship of another country, meaning they cannot be rendered stateless, but the government wants to give the responsible minister wider powers to strip a terrorist of Australian citizenship if they are simply reasonably satisfied the person was entitled to citizenship of another country. In cases like that, they would be deported at the end of their jail term.

"This is something that can't be tolerated, and for those who would engage in this sort of activity, and they have citizenship elsewhere or we have reason to believe they do, they can go," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Dutton said nine people had now been stripped of their Australian citizenship because of involvement with overseas terror groups.

He said there were about 50 dual nationals who may be eligible to lose citizenship under the current provisions, and even more with the changes announced on Thursday.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said Labor would examine the legislation on its merits through the joint intelligence and security committee, once the bill was presented.

"Labor always puts the safety of Australians first and approaches national security in a bipartisan manner. There is nothing more important than keeping Australians safe, and we will always listen to the advice of our security agencies on what they require to keep Australians safe," he said.


Proportionate response

Law Council president Morry Bailes said the government had not made the case why expanding the citizenship revocation powers was a "necessary and proportionate response to the terrorism threat".

"The proposed automatic loss of citizenship and subsequent administrative action do not provide sufficient safeguards to accord with the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, and the right of appeal," Mr Bailes said, adding the temporary exclusion orders could be inconsistent with international obligations because they would render a person stateless for two years.

The chair of the intelligence committee, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, declined to comment on Mr Morrison's demand the inquiry into the encryption laws – which would give police and spy agencies greater powers to access electronic devices and communications – be wrapped up soon.

But a coalition of industry groups, whose number include technology and telco giants such as Google, Facebook, Telstra and Optus, reiterated the government should not rush the laws in because they still had a number of flaws and would compromise cyber security.

"Strong cyber security is central to customer trust, competitiveness, the strength of our economy and the reliability of our infrastructure. The potential impacts of the proposed legislation extend well beyond multinational technology businesses, and perhaps beyond what may be intended," Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said.