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ASIO & Religiously Motivated Violence (Read 323 times)

Armchair_Politician

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ASIO & Religiously Motivated Violence
Nov 24^th, 2015 at 7:16am

Religion ‘must be on ASIO alert list’

A SENIOR Coalition MP has called for the ASIO Act to be revised to include religiously motivated violence under its definitions of security.

The 1979 Act governing ASIO’s responsibilities includes definitions of threats to national security such as foreign espionage, attacks on the defence system, sabotage and politically motivated violence.

But it does not specifically include religiously motivated violence — arguably the greatest present day threat to Australia’s security — although such an offence is specified in the Crimes Act.

Comparable countries such as Canada include specific references to religiously motivated violence in intelligence and security laws.

The UK’s MI5 defines religiously motivated violence as a national security threat.

Former army officer, defence strategist and now Coalition member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Andrew Nikolic, said the ASIO Act might need to be revised to take into account modern threats to security.

He said Australia should consider adopting the Canadian and UK definitions.

“We should act at every opportunity to further assist the work of our police, security and intelligence agencies in countering resurgent terrorism,” he said.

“That includes intensifying our co-operation with traditional five-eyes partners and other close friends in the international system. Given that every recent bilateral or multilateral communiqué prioritises the importance of enhanced counter-terrorism co-operation, this is the moment to ensure a strong, co-ordinated and global response.

“Lessons are being learned daily in how best to respond to resurgent terrorism and we must adopt ‘best practice’ at every opportunity.”

“Countering terrorism requires us to acknowledge and respond to all of the motivations that underlie terrorist activity, be they political, religious or ideological.”

Some intelligence officials said being too specific could create scope to challenge warrants or charges, whereas vague definitions allowed a broader interpretation when it came to surveillance and intercepts.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/religion-must-be-on-asio-alert-list/st...

« Last Edit: Nov 24^th, 2015 at 7:42am by Armchair_Politician »

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Armchair_Politician

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Re: ASIO & Religiously Motivated Violence
Reply #1 - Nov 24^th, 2015 at 7:41am

Arm our frontline to fight terror foe

November 24, 2015 12:00am
Editorial The Daily Telegraph

WITH the global leadership focused on international security at meetings in the wake of the Paris attacks, it is commonsense that Australia’s counter-terrorism laws are as effective as possible. This is unfortunately not the case at the moment.

The ASIO Act’s definition of security currently does not cover incidents of religiously-motivated terrorism, referring only to politically-motivated acts of violence, unlike the laws of several of our international partners, including Britain and Canada. In the UK, MI5 defines security threats as acts or threats made for the purposes of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause. The Canadians take a similar view.

The omission of religiously motivated terrorism was simply a function of the period when the ASIO Act was legislated in 1979 and it should be a minor matter to now bring Australia into line with our security partners and assist our police, intelligence and security services deal with contemporary resurgent terrorism.

An indication of the urgency of the problem was the speed with which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a meeting of the National Security Committee of Cabinet, which he chairs, when he returned to Canberra yesterday.

However a striking omission from the permanent membership of that committee is the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, currently Peter Dutton.

Dutton last week revealed there had been a dramatic increase in the number of Australians being stopped from travelling to conflict zones. Since July, 199 passengers had been offloaded, two-thirds of the total number offloaded in the previous 10 months.

Turnbull dismissed calls for Dutton to be installed on Natsec saying: “The Immigration Minister is frequently co-opted to the NSC. Any matter relevant to immigration at NSC, we’ll have Mr Dutton there.”

Surely, the very need to “frequently” co-opt the minister would indicate his portfolio, dealing as it does with stopping criminals and terrorists coming and going on a day-to-day basis, is an argument for permanency?

Terrorism is the new normal, as we have been seen in recent days, and we must do everything possible to make it easier for those on the frontlines to deal with this threat.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/arm-our-frontline-to-fight-terror-...

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Armchair_Politician Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 26270 Gender:	Re: ASIO & Religiously Motivated Violence Reply #2 - Nov 24^th, 2015 at 11:13am Time to get this done.
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