Australia announces new counter-terrorism strategy

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced a new national counter-terrorism strategy on Monday as the country enters a "long-term era of heightened terrorism threat."

In addition to a developed anti-extremism strategy, Australia will appoint a national terrorism coordinator, while the means by which the country's public alert system changes may be altered.

The announcement followed recommendations into a review, commissioned in August last year, into how Australia deals with potential terrorist threats.

In a speech at the federal police headquarters, Abbott focused primarily on the increased number of Australian foreign fighters returning home and how the federal government will deal with the subsequent dangers.

"The review found that Australia has entered a new, long-term era of heightened terrorism threat, with a much more significant homegrown element," Abbott said.

"It assesses that the terrorism threat in Australia is rising. On all metrics, the threat to Australia is worsening.

"The number of foreign fighters is increasing, the number of known sympathizes and supporters of extremism is increasing and the number of potential terrorists, including many who live in our midst, is rising as well.

"Thousands of young and vulnerable people in the community are susceptible to radicalization. Terrorists are becoming more adept at evading surveillance."

Approximately 90 Australians have traveled to Syria and Iraq recently to join violent extremist groups, with around one-third of those having already returned to Australian shores.

According to Abbott, even more are "actively supporting extremist groups" while living in Australia.

"The number of serious investigations continues to rise," Abbott said. "Roughly 400 are high priority cases, more than double a year ago."

"Extremists' slick online messages are grooming the socially isolated. Low-tech terrorism, needing little more than a camera- phone, social media account and a knife, means that it is becoming harder for police and security agencies to anticipate and disrupt attacks," he said.

Last week, Australian attorney general George Brandis traveled to Washington where he attended a White House summit to counter violent extremism.

There, he announced that Australia would pledge 14 million U.S. dollars towards combating online terrorism propaganda.

"There was a tremendous spirit of goodwill in the room, every region of the world was represented, the Muslim world was well represented, as was the Christian world and other faith groups," Brandis had said.

"The democracies were represented and countries that are not democracy were represented as well. So it was the international community speaking with one voice, a very determined voice, to address a common problem and a common threat." Endi