Australia will consider broadening its immigration laws to deport immigrants -- including permanent residents and naturalized citizens -- who hold extremist views, the attorney general said yesterday.
Under existing laws, the government can deny entry to extremists on character, as well as security grounds, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said.
"One of the aspects of the character tests that we have applied for entry to Australia has included people who may promote views that are broadly unacceptable to the Australian community," Ruddock told reporters in Sydney.
He said the government will now consider widening that law to cover immigrants already in the country, including permanent residents and naturalized citizens, to deport those who promote extremist views.
Ruddock's comments came after the federal police commissioner, Mick Keelty, confirmed this week that intelligence authorities are aware of about 60 Islamic extremists living in Australia, including a self-styled Islamic cleric who appeared on television calling Osama bin Laden a "great man."
The Australian-Algerian cleric, Abu Bakr, also said that it was acceptable under Islamic law for Australian Muslims to fight a holy war against coalition forces in Iraq.
Under existing laws, naturalized Australian citizens can only be removed from the country if they are found to have obtained their citizenship through fraud, Ruddock said.
Ruddock, however, acknowledged that it would be difficult to deport a naturalized citizen because those stripped of their Australian nationality would be left "stateless."
"The idea that you could remove people who were stateless is ... somewhat naive," Ruddock said. "Countries won't accept people back unless they are their citizens."
The issue will likely be on the agenda of a counterrorism meeting of state and federal leaders called by Prime Minister John Howard for next month to discuss tightening security in the country.
evacuation plan
In other related news, the newly elected leader of Australia's most populous state yesterday defended his decision to release details of Sydney's evacuation plan in the event of a terror attack.
New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma stood by the release of information, saying the plan had been developed in cooperation with emergency services personnel.
Iemma's "counter-terrorism evacuation plan," released Friday, revealed which parts of the city residents of Sydney would be marshalled to in the event of an attack.
It has been criticized as merely giving information to potential terrorists on where to detonate secondary bombs to cause even more injury and damage.
But Iemma said the sites were under constant surveillance by police.
"Quite clearly you need to provide information for office workers, for shoppers as to where they should go if there's an incident," he told reporters.
confusion and fear
"What we do know from attacks and from incidents is that they do cause confusion and fear and there is a risk of further injury as a result of fear and confusion," he said.
"This is designed to minimize that and it is about minimizing the risk," he added.
Security experts have criticized the plan, which will be administered by volunteers.
"Why would they release anything like that," counter-terrorism expert Tony Loughran said.
"It doesn't make sense to reveal these locations. In this type of situation, there is still the potential for another payload to go off. And, anyway, unless you are at the epicenter, you should stay inside," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Iemma became premier on Wednesday following the resignation of Bob Carr after more than 10 years in the job.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS