Concerns have been raised over a proposed new law that would allow police to hold children as young as 10 without charge for up to two weeks on suspicion of a terrorism offence.
The Turnbull government have agreed to the move, which has been slammed as ‘draconian’, at a meeting in Canberra this week.
The new measure was introduced on Saturday by Justice Minister Michael Keenan, who said that ISIS’s determination to recruit children made such measure ‘regrettable but necessary’.
ISIS is well-known for recruiting and radicalising children. In 2014, the 7-year-old son of Khaled Sharrouf was pictured (above) holding a severed head after the family left Sydney to join ISIS
Justice Minister Michael Keenan called the new laws ‘regrettable but necessary’, explaining they were in response to ISIS’ determination to recruit primarily children and young people
During the same meeting, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews derided civil liberties concerns as a ‘luxury’, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Some people have the luxury of being able to have that notional debate. Those of us in positions of leadership do not have that luxury,’ he said.
As it stands, only police in NSW have the power to detain a person for questioning for up to 14 days – with most states allowing only a maximum of seven.
Mr Turnbull wants nationally consistent pre-charge detention laws and has been working on a stronger regime that gets around some legal impediments.
President of the Law Council of Australia, Fiona McLeod, cautioned against dismissing such concerns and called imprisoning children without charge ‘draconian’.
‘We believe that’s crossed the line of intruding on civil liberties too much,’ she said.
The federal Labor opposition also criticsed the move, with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus saying, ‘It’s a shocking and drastic step to propose, without charge, the detention of child of 10 years old.’
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) said that civil liberties were a ‘luxury’ in this case
‘Unfortunately ISIL specialises in targeting children,’ Minister Keenan said on Sunrise recently
President of the Law Council of Australia Fiona McLeod has slammed the move as ‘draconian’
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said police no longer have the luxury to watch, wait and collect evidence before they act when it comes to terrorist activity.
Mr Keenen reminded viewers on Sunrise that the extremist who murdered Curtis Cheng was only 15 years old, and that ‘unfortunately ISIL specialises in targeting children’.
‘Any teacher, any criminologist, any psychologist would tell you that children’s brains are maturing right through their teens and that you need to treat children differently,’ he argued.
Under the proposed changes, children will be able to have a parent or legal guardian present if they are being questioned.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus called the proposed legislation ‘shocking’ and ‘drastic’
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said that police need to act quickly
‘We need the time to properly disrupt criminal enterprises,’ Commissioner Colvin said, referring to the operation to foil a plot to bring down a plane in Sydney.
‘We’re very comfortable that two weeks is the appropriate period of time – with the right scrutiny and safeguards in place – to investigate properly.’
The states and territories will also be asked to consider new criminal offences to target people who possess material that could be used to prepare or carry out a terrorist act.
That could include accessing instructions to build bombs or techniques to blow up planes.
‘There’s no legitimate purpose or justification for having information like that and that should be an offence,’ Mr Turnbull said.
A new Commonwealth offence for terrorism hoaxes will also be put to leaders, to cover things like falsely claiming a knife or vehicle attack.
Meanwhile, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has flagged new laws to allow radicalised inmates to be detained beyond their prison sentence even if they were locked up for non-terror offences.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan reminded viewers that ISIS specialises in targeting children
A new Commonwealth offence for terrorism hoaxes will be put forward to cover false claims