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LCA concerned with ‘excessive’ offence for entering terrorism zones
Australia’s major legal body has told an inquiry about its concern over a new, potential offence that would prosecute individuals who entered a high-risk foreign conflict zone.
Naomi Neilson
A parliamentary inquiry tasked with reviewing laws restricting entry into high-risk zones in foreign countries has heard evidence from the Law Council of Australia (LCA), which claims the potential new offences cast an “excessive and inappropriate” net.
“Despite the travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 response, terrorism remains a considerable threat to Australia and considering the laws remains an important task. It is important to continue to review Australia’s national security and counterterrorism powers to ensure we are effectively managing the ongoing security threat,” he said.
While the LCA did not oppose the enactment of laws that places some limitations with the freedom of movement of an individual Australian to prevent people from engaging in terrorism-related activities in foreign countries, it is a longstanding concern that the declared areas regime does not meet the “basic standards of proportionality”.
This offence, LCA claims, will criminalise a person’s mere presence at a deemed place in a foreign country, which needs not be under the effective control of a listed terrorism organisation as a precondition to be listed as a “declared area” by the minister.
“Consequently, application and enforcement of the offence are substantially dependent on the exercise of broad discretion by law enforcement agencies and ministers, which creates unacceptably high risks of arbitrary operation,” president Pauline Wright said.
The risk is further compounded by the inclusion of a narrow offence-specific section in the legislation for persons who are present in a declared area for reasons that can be proven to be entirely unrelated to terrorism but are not prescribed as “permitted”.
The LCA recommended the declared areas regime should be repealed and a reliance should instead be placed on enforcing the wide range of the existing preparatory and ancillary offences in the criminal code.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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