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Australian leaders to agree on "preventative detention" for convicted terrorists

Xinhua, December 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia's Prime Minister has on Friday pushed state and territory leaders to back indefinite detention for convicted terrorists, under new laws proposed at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.

Malcolm Turnbull has implored state premiers and territory chief ministers to unanimously back a plan which would result in terrorists being treated similarly to pedophiles, whereby they are kept locked up even after their sentence has expired.

Such preventative detention laws would be used on convicted terrorists who are deemed likely to re-offend.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the plan was raised at a formal dinner between the leaders on Thursday night, and is expected to be agreed to late on Friday.

In Australia, convicted felons are placed in state prisons, meaning legislation pertaining to imprisonment varies from state to state, but Turnbull, alongside Liberal MP and head of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security matter Dan Tehan, has asked the states to uniformly come up with a system that would cover all states and territories.

Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett told reporters on Friday that there would be little contention from the state leaders.

"I think there'll be agreement over the terrorism issues, there's no dispute over that," Barnett said on Friday morning.

Meanwhile Tehan said on Friday that there was a "gap in our system" which could allow those who have served time to commit offences once on the outside.

He said Australia cannot take the chance to allow a terrorist who has been released to put lives at risk.

"Where people are a danger to society after they have served their time for conviction, as we do with sex and as we do with violent offenders... then they should be put into preventative detention," Tehan said.

"This is a gap in our current system, this is a gap which potentially presents a danger to the community's safety."

There are currently 13 convicted terrorists in Australian jails, with nine serving time in New South Wales and four locked up in Victoria. Endit