Children as young as 10 could be held by police for 14 days without charge under a new national detention law applying to terrorism suspects, the justice minister has confirmed.



Michael Keenan told the ABC it was “deeply regrettable” that children could be held under the new counter-terrorism regime, approved by federal and state governments at a special Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra on Thursday.

But he said Isis specialised in the radicalisation and recruitment of children.

Keenan confirmed the new regime would apply to children “as young as 10”, but he said minors would be subject to “an enormous level of safeguards”.

There would be additional safeguards for children aged between 10 and 14, and those aged between 14 and 18, he said.

“I’m very happy for these laws never to be used,” Keenan said, but law enforcement agencies needed to be given authority to deal with all situations when it came to national security threats.

He said the community would not be well served if an 11-year-old was preparing to commit and act of terrorism, and police had no powers to deal with that.

The Turnbull government will legislate the 14-day pre-charge detention regime, modelled on an existing New South Wales law, despite previous concerns that such a law might breach the constitution.

Malcolm Turnbull said on Thursday it was more efficient for Canberra to legislate, given most counter-terrorism operations were coordinated between the commonwealth and a state jurisdiction.

The new counter-terrorism measures, which include an agreement to share face-matching technology between jurisdictions in real time, have generated concerns among civil libertarians and privacy groups.

But in signing up to the new regime, a number of premiers argued on Thursday that when it came to the terrorism threat, community safety trumped concerns about liberty and privacy.