Children as young as 14 to be charged as adults under new Australian counter-terror laws

Children as young as 14 years of age will be charged as adults, while convicted terrorists who serve out their sentences in prison could be kept in preventative detention, under new counter-terror laws introduced into Australian Parliament on Thursday.

The nation's Attorney-General, George Brandis, said he expects the amendments to receive bipartisan support in both the lower and upper Houses, as they would serve to keep Australia's anti-terror laws "as strong and up-to-date as possible."

He said the changes, which include an amendment to charge minors as adults when it comes to terror-related activities would "enable police and intelligence agencies to fight terrorism, and to keep our community safe."

"Regrettably, children as young as 14 have been involved in terrorism-related activities. This Bill recognizes this reality and the need for appropriate safeguards," Brandis said in a statement on Thursday.

He added that the second amendment, which would keep at-risk convicted terrorists in jail even if their sentence has been served, would further protect Australians from the growing risk of terrorism.

"Most states and territories have already enacted post-sentence preventative detention schemes for dealing with high risk sex or violent offenders, but until now, there has been no such scheme for convicted terrorist offenders," Brandis said.

"(This amendment will) enable a Supreme Court, upon application by the Attorney-General, to make an order for the ongoing detention of high risk terrorist offenders who are approaching the end of their custodial sentences and are about to be released into the community.

"The court must be satisfied to a high degree of probability, on the basis of admissible evidence, that the offender poses an unacceptably high risk of committing a serious terrorism offence if released." Endit