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PM pushes for national parole laws to keep terror offenders locked up

7 June, 2017 | Filed under: All News,more news,Opinion,RECENT POSTS | Posted by:

The Turnbull government will this week push for toughened and nationally-consistent parole laws after concerns were raised about how Yacqub??? Khayre???, the gunman responsible for Monday night’s deadly siege in Melbourne, was roaming free despite a track record of violence and extremism.

At a COAG meeting of federal, state and territory leaders on Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will make the case for a uniform policy with presumptions against parole or bail for offenders with terror links and violent histories.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a meeting on cyber security at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday 31 May 2017. Photo: Andrew Meares
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a meeting on cyber security at Parliament House
in Canberra on Wednesday 31 May 2017. Photo: Andrew Meares

 Mr Turnbull said the government wanted to “make sure that people like Khayre are not released on parole” and suggested any exceptions should “go to the very top” and be approved by state attorneys-general.

“What I want to make sure is that people with these characteristics, with a history of violence and a connection with extremism, that that is taken into account, that they should not be let out on parole unless the decision is taken at the highest level,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

Mr Turnbull said he had raised the issue with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and flagged it would be a “high priority” at the COAG meeting.

“How was this man on parole? He had a long record of violence. A very long record of violence. He had been charged with a terrorist offence some years ago and had been acquitted. He was known to have connections, at least in the past, with violent extremism,” Mr Turnbull said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Andrews said domestic spy agency ASIO and the Australian Federal Police should be “directly involved as a decision maker” in parole consideration for people suspected of terror offences or with extremist backgrounds.

“This is not a state-based issue. This is a national issue,” he told the ABC.

“I will take that proposal to COAG on Friday and we’re happy to look at any propositions that the federal government and the federal Attorney-General will make.”

Mr Andrews told the Seven Network’s Sunrise program that “we’d even go so far as to take the extraordinary step of referring our state’s authority over parole for those that are on the terror watch list to the Commonwealth government”.

Mr Turnbull said he was prepared to discuss it but asserted the Premier was “proposing to abdicate responsibility for Victorians to the federal government”.

Khayre, who had a history of drug abuse and violence, was considered by police to be a “peripheral player” in a long-running terror investigation and was out on parole on unrelated violent offences.

He has previously been associated with Somali terror group al-Shabab and was charged and acquitted in 2010 over plans to carry out a suicide attack on Sydney’s Holsworthy army barracks.

It is understood Khayre cut off his parole GPS security ankle bracelet on Monday to avoid having his movements monitored.

Mr Turnbull has also pointed to concerns about Lindt siege gunman Man Haron Monis, who was out on bail when he carried out the December 2014 attack in Sydney.

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The story PM pushes for national parole laws to keep terror offenders locked up first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Source:illawarramercury.com.au