Canberra, Mar 03: Australia will be able to slap instant bans on ''terror groups'' not listed by the United Nations Security Council and without Parliament's approval after the main Opposition party today dropped two years of resistance. The new powers will allow Attorney-General Philip Ruddock to immediately issue bans if needed. The national parliament then has 15 days to overturn the move. Under Australia's counter-terrorism laws, beefed up after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, anyone belonging to, training, funding or recruiting members for a banned ''terrorist group'' can be jailed for up to 25 years.
The main Opposition Labor party and other minor parties had resisted extending the attorney-general's powers to outlaw organisations, fearing it could lead to the abolition of many parties without terror links who oppose the government.
Ruddock welcomed Labor's support for the toughened law. ''To get to a point where we have reasonable power that does enable the government to act quickly, is only sensible,'' Ruddock told Parliament.
Last year, the conservative government had to draw up separate pieces of legislation to outlaw Lebanese political group Hezbollah, leading Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba as ''terrorist groups''. Labor's homeland security spokesman Robert McClelland said extending the Attorney-General's powers was now justified in the context of the international community's fight against terror.
''Issues of national security should be above party politics and the government and the Opposition have today achieved a constructive and balanced outcome that is in the national interest,'' McClelland said in a statement. bureau Report