The federal government won't rule out the possibility that UK residents will be subject to tougher visa measures outlined in a new counter-terrorism blueprint.
The government intends introducing stronger visa checking and biometric scanning of those wanting to travel to Australia from 10 yet-to-be-named countries.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland was reluctant to say whether the UK would be one of the 10 following heightened risks there about home-grown terrorism.
"The UK are already rolling out the biometrics," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"What we'll be endeavouring to do is supplement and value add to that framework that's already in place."
Mr McClelland said it would be up to the immigration minister and foreign affairs minister to decide whether UK residents wanting to travel to Australia would be biometrically tested.
The measure was aimed at countries deemed to be a "potential" terrorist risk where the safeguards being rolled out in the UK were not in place.
Mr McClelland said the government would announce in the May budget a number of programs to address Australia's own home-grown terrorist risk.
'Diplomatic effort required'
Critics of the counter-terrorism white paper say the document did not contain any new measures to combat the home-grown threat despite it being identified as a serious risk to security.
The government has not yet named the countries on the list, but security sources say it includes Indonesia, India, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan.
"There may well be a diplomatic effort required in respect of some of those countries as you would expect," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Australia is already facing troubles in its relationship with India because of the violence inflicted on some Indian nationals in Melbourne.
And any split with Indonesia would once again damage the fragile relationship with Australia's largest near neighbour.
New measures 'a threat to privacy'
The NSW Civil Liberties Council warned of the increasing threat to privacy from the new measures.
"I am very concerned that these things pose an ever increasing invasion of privacy," council president Cameron Murphy told AAP.
"It's highly subjective and discriminatory (and) it provides people with a false sense of security."
He said if Indonesia was to implement a similar scheme against all incoming Australians the government would be "outraged".
Chair of the Senate's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade references committee Russell Trood said the paper did not adequately address the issue of how to counter the threat from homegrown terrorism.
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