COUNTER-TERRORISM WHITE PAPER
Securing Australia | Protecting Our Community
Chapter 3: Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy
The aim of Australia’s counter-terrorism strategy is to protect Australia, its people and interests from terrorism.
The Government’s strategy has four elements:
- Analysis: an intelligence-led response to terrorism driven by a properly connected and properly informed national security community.
- Protection: taking all necessary and practical action to protect Australia and Australians from terrorism at home and abroad.
- Response: providing an immediate and targeted response to specific terrorist threats and terrorist attacks should they occur.
- Resilience: building a strong and resilient Australian community to resist the development of any form of violent extremism and terrorism on the home front.
We will pursue these objectives informed by the following core judgements:
- Countering terrorism requires a long-term commitment, and complementary international and domestic efforts.
- To prevent acts of terrorism, and anticipate evolving terrorist intentions and tactics, our efforts must be intelligence-led and highly coordinated across agency and governmental boundaries.
- A risk-informed and layered approach to counter-terrorism is essential because no single measure will be fully effective.
- Our efforts should always seek to be lawful, proportionate and accountable.
- Australia must have in place mechanisms that allow us to respond seamlessly to and recover from acts of terrorism should they occur.
- The support and cooperation of business and the community are essential to extend the reach and effectiveness of government counter-terrorism efforts.
3.1 Elements of Australia’s counter-terrorism strategy
3.1.1 Analysis: an intelligence-led response to terrorism driven by a properly connected and properly informed national security community
Australia’s counter-terrorism efforts are intelligence-led and focused on prevention. This approach hinges on strong partnerships and cooperation at the national level, effective engagement at the international level, and effective information sharing. Over recent years, there has been significant growth in Australia’s security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies and the Government has taken steps to improve their capabilities and enhance information sharing. The establishment of the National Intelligence Coordination Committee has ensured that Australia’s intelligence effort, both domestically and internationally, is better integrated into the new national security arrangements. The creation of a new Counter-Terrorism Control Centre will also ensure that we better integrate our overall counter-terrorism intelligence capabilities.. Our efforts to ensure an intelligence-led response to terrorism delivered by a connected and informed national security community are detailed in Chapter four.
3.1.2 Protection: taking all necessary and practical action to protect Australia and Australians from terrorism at home and abroad
The Government is committed to taking action to protect Australians and reduce the risk of attack. This approach involves efforts at a number of complementary levels, including:
- strong border management arrangements to prevent the movement of individuals who try to enter or transit Australia to conduct terrorism-related activities by introducing a new biometric-based visa system for certain non-citizens – making it harder for terrorists to evade detection;
- preventing Australians suspected of involvement in terrorism from travelling overseas by revoking or denying passports;
- improving the security of our airports to enhance protection of the travelling public;
- continued cooperation and collaboration with the states and territories through comprehensive national counter-terrorism arrangements;
- working in partnership with the business community to protect our critical infrastructure, including information and communications technology; and
- strengthened collaboration with international partners, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to contribute to international counter-terrorism efforts and create an international environment that is hostile to terrorism.
Details of the Government’s efforts to protect Australia and Australians at home and abroad are discussed in Chapter five.
3.1.3 Response: providing an immediate and targeted response to specific terrorist threats and terrorist attacks should they occur
The Government’s ability to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks within Australia relies on coordinated and cooperative relationships between our intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies nationally. This collaborative approach ensures that we have a robust and effective national capacity to respond to terrorist threats. Australia’s comprehensive national response uses the full array of Commonwealth, state and territory counter-terrorism capabilities. It is underpinned by a legal regime that provides effective powers for our agencies and the ability to prosecute people who seek to conduct terrorist acts. The Government will keep these powers under review against any further need to expand them or tailor them to deal with any changes in the nature of the threat in the future. Australia’s comprehensive approach to providing an immediate and targeted response to terrorist threats and recovering from an attack is set out in Chapter six.
3.1.4 Resilience: building a strong and resilient Australian community to resist the development of any form of violent extremism and terrorism on the home front
Australia’s counter-terrorism efforts are supported by our open democratic society. There are inherent strengths in our society that make Australia resilient to the divisive worldview of al-Qa’ida and like-minded groups. However, we know from experience that the terrorist narrative may resonate with a small number of Australians. It is incumbent upon all Australians to work together to reject ideologies that promote violence, no matter from where they arise or to what purpose they aspire. We must all support and protect the values and freedoms from which all Australians benefit. By reducing disadvantage, addressing real or perceived grievances and encouraging full participation in Australia’s social and economic life, government policies can help to mitigate any marginalisation and radicalisation that may otherwise occur within the Australian community. How we will counter violent extremism is explained in Chapter seven.
3.2 The way Australia will pursue our objectives
In pursuit of our aim to protect Australia, its people and interests from terrorism, we must take a comprehensive and layered approach. Our counter-terrorism measures must be informed by strategic judgements about the nature of the threat and Australia’s vulnerability to it. And we must conduct our activities in a manner that harnesses our capabilities, upholds our principles and mitigates the risk of attack or failure in our response.
3.2.1 International and domestic activities
International terrorism challenges any notion of separate domestic and international security realms. Australia must pursue a range of counter-terrorism measures internationally to counter the threat to our interests both overseas and domestically. Given the transnational nature of the threat and the willingness of some terrorist groups to export terrorism to countries like Australia, our international efforts support our domestic security. The narrative espoused by al-Qa’ida will continue to resonate with some members of our society, so we should also ensure that our efforts to counter terrorism domestically are informed by best-practice models internationally.
3.2.2 Intelligence-led and coordinated preventive measures
Terrorism requires an active, preventive and adaptive response across the full range of government counter-terrorism measures. It presents challenges across all levels of government and our response involves a broad range of government agencies. Over recent years, there has been significant growth in Australia’s security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies designed to enhance Australia’s counter-terrorism capacity. The Government has also taken steps to enhance information sharing. The newly established NICC ensures that Australia’s intelligence effort, both domestically and internationally, is better integrated into the new national security arrangements. The national approach to counter-terrorism is based upon strong, cooperative, coordinated and consultative relationships between our agencies. The agencies cooperate to conduct preventive operations.
3.2.3 A risk-informed and layered approach
Intelligence plays a critical role in identifying, investigating and anticipating threats, developing preventive responses and determining the areas of greatest need for our counter-terrorism efforts. It also provides the basis to identify opportunities to more effectively focus counter-terrorism efforts, disrupt terrorist acts or make changes to our counter-terrorism measures on the basis of risk-informed assessments. No one counter-terrorism measure can protect all of our interests or preclude attack. As a result, Australia’s approach to counter-terrorism relies on complementary security layers designed on the basis of assessments of risk, involving threat, vulnerability and the potential consequences of attack. These layers collectively strengthen Australia’s national security.
3.2.4 A lawful, proportionate and accountable response
To be effective, Australia must pursue a principled and proportionate response that promotes and upholds the values we seek to protect. The Government does not support the use of torture or other unlawful methods in response to terrorism. Terrorism is a crime and the Government will pursue terrorists within proper legal frameworks and in accordance with the rule of law. A response based on our democratic values and universal human rights serves to undermine the narrative of terrorist groups that seek to portray our actions, and those of our allies, as oppressive. In recognition of the importance of our counter-terrorism and security legislation, the Government has introduced legislation to establish an Independent National Security Legislation Monitor to regularly and independently review the operation of Australia’s counter-terrorism laws.
3.2.5 Effective national arrangements
Cooperative federalism is a vital part of Australia’s counter-terrorism strategy. Australian governments have overlapping responsibility for protecting our communities, infrastructure and assets and the interests of Australia as a whole against terrorism. Australia’s national approach to counter-terrorism is coordinated through a comprehensive set of arrangements. The National Counter-Terrorism Plan sets out arrangements and responsibilities for dealing with terrorism. The Commonwealth and the states and territories routinely conduct multi-jurisdictional exercises to enhance Australia’s national counter-terrorism and emergency management capabilities. These exercises test national and jurisdictional counter-terrorism arrangements with a focus on consequence management, including the simulation of large-scale and multiple-site mass casualty incidents.
3.2.6 Cooperation between governments, business and communities
As the owners and operators of infrastructure that may be targeted by terrorists, the business community has a key role to play in Australia’s response to terrorism and in supporting resilience within our economy and community. Communities also play a leading role in rejecting extremist ideologies and supporting individuals who are at risk of marginalisation, or who might be attracted to the use of violent expression to achieve political, social or ideological goals. Communities can also assist our law enforcement and security agencies to help prevent acts of terrorism.