Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton: flags law changes to keep ISIS fighters in the Middle East out of the country
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says it’s easier to deport paedophiles than keep ISIS terrorists out of Australia.
The senior Turnbull Government minister has flagged new measures to keep the nation safe from foreign fighters returning from the Middle East.
The Liberal MP, who holds the super home affairs and immigration portfolios, wants to amend 2015 laws that were designed to strip terrorists of Australian citizenship.
‘I’m concerned that legislation to strip Australian citizenship of dual nationals engaged in terrorism is not working as it should,’ he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
‘Indeed some 20 dual citizens have had their Australian citizenship revoked since 2014 for child sex and serious offences.
‘I didn’t think, frankly, the difference makes sense to Australians concerned about the prospect of battle-hardened extremists returning here to our country so I’ve asked for the application of the law to be reviewed by my department.’
Under existing laws, moved by the Abbott government in 2015, dual nationals can be stripped of their Australian citizenship and deported if they have been caught lying on their application.’
However, he said it was more complicated sparing Australia from having to accept terrorists who had fought in the Middle East, in places like Syria and northern Iraq.
‘I don’t think that passes the pub test or the common sense test,’ he said.
The former Queensland police detective delivered his address to the Press Gallery a day after Melbourne-born Muslim convert Neil Prakash admitted to a Turkish court he was a member of Islamic State.
‘I don’t want people coming back into our country that have been off fighting in the name of ISIS,’ Mr Dutton said.
‘I don’t want people coming back having been battle hardened, skilled now in the art of bomb making and terrorist activities walking the streets of our capital cities.
‘I want those people kept as far away from our shores as possible. ‘
Mr Dutton said any change to the law would comply with Australia’s United Nations obligations to ensure no one was rendered stateless.
Source: Daily Mail
