SA: New terror laws unworkable, says Attorney-General
By Lauren Ahwan
ADELAIDE, Aug 22 AAP - Australia's new terror laws were unworkable and did not allowterrorist groups to be properly identified, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said today.
Mr Williams said under the laws passed earlier this year, groups could only be identifiedas terror organisations in Australia if they had first been recognised as such by theUnited Nations Security Council.
However, the UN list was limited and did not represent all threats to Australia, MrWilliams said.
As such amendments had been introduced into parliament to remove the requirement forUN listing, he said.
"The United Nations Security Council has limited the proscriptions of (terror) organisationsas such to those that are associated with al-Qaeda or the Taliban and there are no otherorganisations outside that that have been listed by the United Nations Security Council,"
he told a World Jurist Association congress in Adelaide today.
The Lebanon-based militia group Hizbollah, perceived to be a threat to Australia'sinterests, was not on the UN list, he said.
The militia group has been identified in Australia as a terrorist organisation aftera separate one-off piece of legislation was passed through parliament specific to Hizbollah.
Mr Williams said he was unaware of any other country that was hindered by only recognisingUN listed groups as terrorist organisations.
"This is not a criticism of the Security Council, this is a recognition that Australiahas its own interests independent of the Security Council and we must have the capacityto respond independently in defence of our interests," he said.
"The government believes this requirement (for UN listing) is unnecessary and in factcan impede Australia's ability to respond quickly to the threats posed by organisationsidentified by our own security agencies as terrorist organisations."
AAP la/sl/sco/de
KEYWORD: TERROR WILLIAMS
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