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Australia raises national security budget to 850 mln USD

Xinhua, May 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia government committed on Tuesday an additional 355.5 million U.S. dollars to increase surveillance and fight local terrorism as it prepares to hand down its second budget.

The money, which is in addition to the 500 million U.S. dollars allocated to national security last year, will primarily be used to "strengthen the capabilities" of intelligence agencies, including upgrading IT systems, the government said.

Over 100 million U.S. dollars will be used to help the telecommunications industry implement their storage systems in preparation of the government's new controversial metadata laws.

The laws, passed in March, will come into effect in 2017 and see telecommunications companies forced to hold all phone and internet records for two years.

The government said 17.4 million U.S. dollars will be spent fighting terrorist propaganda including that on social media.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told media on Tuesday that Australia could not become lazy towards the threat of terrorism.

"To help combat terrorism at home and deter Australians from committing terrorist acts abroad, we need to ensure our security agencies are resourced properly and have the powers to respond to evolving threats and technological change," Abbott said.

"To deter terrorism we need to challenge the recruitment methods used by extremist organizations, particularly online."

The new money pushes government spending on national security towards well beyond 850 million U.S. dollars, despite talk only a year ago of a "budget emergency".

When unveiling his second budget on Tuesday evening, Treasurer Joe Hockey will announce a budget deficit of 27-31 billion U.S. dollars, the country's eighth consecutive deficit.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told media that the government had "put up the white flag on any long term plans to get the budget deficit under control". Endi