I welcome the strong support from my State counterparts today for the Howard Government’s new counter-terrorism laws.
Today’s meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General finalised the detail of legislation referring constitutional power to the Commonwealth that will serve to strengthen the application of these new laws.
I encourage the States to pass the legislation as quickly as possible.
Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Commonwealth Government has acted swiftly to introduce new policy measures, legislation and to provide more resources for our security and intelligence agencies to bolster Australia’s ability to combat terrorism.
The recent attacks in Bali have strengthened our resolve to put these measures in place as a matter of urgency.
On the legislative side, Federal Parliament has passed a package of counter-terrorism legislation, important elements of which received Royal Assent on 5 July. The legislative package creates a number of offences in relation to terrorist acts and the financing and membership of terrorist organisations.
In April this year, the Prime Minister and State and Territory leaders agreed that a new national framework was needed to meet the new challenges of combating terrorism.
In particular, they agreed that the States would remove any lingering constitutional uncertainty by means of constitutional references to the Commonwealth Parliament.
Our counter-terrorism laws are built on strong constitutional grounds. But we can not afford to take the chance that these laws can be effectively challenged by those with an interest in getting around them. We must make them as watertight as possible. The proposed reference of powers by the States will do just that.
Should there be any unforeseen gaps in the Commonwealth’s powers in certain specific circumstances, the States will have referred the relevant powers to the Commonwealth so there is no question over the legitimacy of the counter-terrorism laws.
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