Australian-born nationals fighting overseas with groups such as Islamic State could face years of suspended citizenship privileges under an option being considered by the federal government.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says while it remains government policy not to render Australian citizens stateless, the coalition is determined to stare down the growing threat from terrorism.
The United Kingdom had looked at a two-year period of imposing conditions or sanction or suspension, he said.
"It's operating in some other jurisdictions, so we want to have a proper look at that."
Mr Dutton said the government was seeking legal advice on different options, but ruled out a Guantanamo Bay-style response under which foreign fighters could be detained at an offshore location.
"There's no option that I'm aware of," he said.
The comments come in the wake of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's first national security statement on Monday, in which he flagged potential sanctions on Australian-born nationals, including restricting their ability to enter or leave the country.
Still, little detail has been provided, and questions remain over the government's ability to, for example, refuse re-entry to Australian-born nationals who have been fighting in Iraq or Syria.
Mr Dutton said the matter would be assessed on a case-by-case basis because rendering somebody stateless was not an easy issue.
"It's not one that countries in the Western world have been able to grapple with properly yet," he said.
"We take our international obligations very seriously, but nonetheless we need to and we will stare down this threat."
The government is also seeking to amend the Citizenship Act to strip dual nationals of Australian citizenship if they are engaged in terrorism.
Constitutional law expert George Williams said he could not see any constitutional barrier to revoking the citizenship of dual nationals.
There would be a need to look carefully at an international convention on statelessness.
"Though in this case it doesn't seem that it would be an issue because we'll be removing citizenship only from dual nationals," Professor Williams told AAP.
There were very few constraints because the constitution did not actually mention citizenship, nor did Australia have a bill of rights or clear legal protections for citizenship.
"It means it's a question of law-making and policy rather than hard limits," Prof Williams said.
Mr Abbott on Tuesday said it was now more necessary than ever to strengthen counter-terrorism laws because of the more than 100 Australians fighting with Islamic State, and another 160 helping recruit and finance the terror group.
He told parliament he wanted to send a clear message: "If you are a dual citizen and you become involved in terrorism overseas, you will lose your citizenship of Australia.
"Britain strips terrorists of their citizenship, Canada strips terrorists of their citizenship, France strips citizens of their citizenship, and we should do also."
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