The government will introduce new laws to revoke the Australian citizenship of dual citizens convicted of committing terrorism offences.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil will put forward the new legislation next week that will enable the High Court to strip dual nationals of their citizenship on terror-related grounds.
It comes after the top court struck down Coalition-era laws, introduced under then home affairs minister Peter Dutton, that gave broad power to ministers to deprive a person’s citizenship after they were convicted of a terror offence.
The ruling triggered the imminent release of convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika after he successfully argued that Mr Dutton’s laws were unconstitutional.
The high court ruled in Abdul Nacer Benbrika’s favour in early November and found that section 36D of the Citizenship Act is invalid.
Mr Benbrika was arrested and convicted over plots to attack Melbourne landmarks in 2008. He is due to be released under strict conditions after 24 December.
Ms O’Neil said Labor sought to fix the “broken” laws which allowed ministerial discretion to cancel citizenship and replace them with laws that were “tough and constitutionally sound”.
“The way to keep our country safe is not to hyperventilate, overreach and use inflammatory language. It is to do the work, calmly manage the issues and fix the problems one by one,” she said.
According to a Home Affairs spokesperson the new “watertight” laws were formed with the input of constitutional legal experts.
It’s expected the legislation, to be tabled on Monday, will pass through parliament with the Coalition’s support.