Exclusive: Department engaged researchers to review its preventive detention of terrorists, only to attempt to remove their most serious criticisms
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Department of Home Affairs officials told researchers to water down a key report that threatened to undermine the government’s use of “extraordinary” counter-terror powers allowing individuals to be imprisoned for a crime they have not yet committed, documents show.
Australia’s preventive detention regime for terror offenders, which allows individuals to be imprisoned for up to three years to prevent a future crime, has been described as “extraordinary” and disproportionate by the nation’s independent national security laws watchdog, who called for its abolishment in March and said it was causing Australia to become a “coarser and harsher society”.
About Author
More Stories
Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’
Kleptocrats to benefit from Trump DoJ’s anti-corruption pause, experts warn
Russia orders two people connected to British embassy to leave country