Amid criticism of the proposed new laws, which are due to be discussed in parliament on Thursday, Mr Ruddock said the new measures were necessary to manage the terrorist threat to Australia.
"If those who assert it (that the new laws aren't necessary) can positively tell me that these are the only people engaged in possible terrorist acts in Australia, we can all go away and relax," Mr Ruddock told the Nine Network, referring to the 17 arrested.
Seven Sydney men were charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist attack following raids across the city on Tuesday.
An eighth person, who was shot by an officer after allegedly opening fire on police, was charged with a range of offences, including intent to murder and a terrorist related charge.
And nine men arrested in raids in Melbourne, also on Tuesday, were charged with being members of a terrorist organisation.
"There are two groups ... in Sydney the charges are of a different character and were charges that were possible because of the amendment that was made to the terror code," he told ABC radio in Melbourne.
Mr Ruddock said he had been told the Sydney group had stockpiled some bomb-making chemicals in Australia, while other materials had been ordered.
Mr Ruddock defended why the arrests were not made earlier, saying the timing was related to the availability of evidence.
Anti-terror laws
The Attorney General also said proposed amendments to Australia's anti-terror laws were more limited than those now in place in Britain.
British MPs rejected moves by Prime Minister Tony Blair to increase preventative detention from 14 to 90 days, but it did back an increase to 28 days.
Mr Ruddock said the Australian government was seeking to introduce measures enabling preventative detention for up to 14 days.
He also said the UK had laws that enabled police to question people while in detention, which was not a measure Australia was seeking to implement at this stage.
"Our measures as proposed are less than the United Kingdom has in place now and they've seen the need to extend it," he told ABC radio in Melbourne.
Mr Ruddock said police in London had told him they wanted to extend the laws beyond 14 days because it was not enough time to deal with issues like complex forensic investigations and language difficulties.
Mr Blair had argued that longer detentions would help police glean more evidence, build stronger cases and "may be the crucial difference in saving this country from terrorist acts".
Police called for longer powers of detention following the bombings because of wider use of encrypted computers, as well as language difficulties inherent in combating international terrorist networks.
Citizenship issues
In the light of the alleged pending attack uncovered by police, Australia is considering introducing laws to strip convicted terrorists of their Australian citizenship.
But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer stressed no final decision had been made on such a law and conceded it would be impossible to deport stateless people.
Mr Ruddock said Australia's international obligation not to leave a person stateless was one of many complicating factors.
He said depriving a person of citizenship was a much more complex issue than denying an applicant citizenship.
The Attorney General said if an Australian was stripped of citizenship and they had no other entitlements, they would be left stateless.
"So it will be only one class of people that you would be able to act in relation to and that's one of the many complicating factors that you would have to weigh up in considering this measure," Mr Ruddock said.