PM confident about citizenship legislation

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his advice is that planned laws to strip dual nationals involved in terrorism of their citizenship will stand up.

Federal Minister for Education Christopher Pyne

The government's citizenship plan involves risks, Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne admits. (AAP)

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is confident legislation that will strip citizenship from dual nationals involved in terrorism is constitutionally sound, amid claims the laws would likely be invalid.

Mr Abbott says based on advice, the government is confident that the legislation it's proposing "minimises constitutional risk".

"You can never stop people bringing court actions but we are as confident as we can be," he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

Mr Abbott said there were more than 100 people who had left Australia to fight for Islamic State, many of who were dual citizens, and the government was determined to ensure they didn't return.

It comes as legal experts question the constitutionality of handing Immigration Minister Peter Dutton the power to determine who should lose their citizenship.

Senior government security adviser Bret Walker SC says the High Court would likely rule the laws invalid.

"I am very worried that the way the government has done this is a bull-at-a-gate, stubborn insistence they won't have the courts involved," Mr Walker told The Sunday Telegraph.

"We are told in very general terms about proposals which are constitutionally suspect and reflect an unattractive executive disdain for judicial process."

Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne admitted there was risk involved but insisted the legislation the government will introduce within the next fortnight would mitigate the risk "as far as humanly possible".

"There's always risk involved in every decision like this, every piece of legislation, particularly around national security," Mr Pyne told Network Ten's Bolt Report on Sunday.

"In the end, that'll be a matter for the High Court to decide, should it be litigated in the High Court."

Labor has provided in-principle support for the proposal but says it wants to see the detail.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called on the government to present the legislation to parliament and brief the Labor party on its proposal.

"We will be bipartisan on what works," he told reporters in Canberra.

"We're very concerned that the experts upon whom the government is relying for these measures seem to be contradicting what the government is proposing to do."

Labor wanted to see a proposal based on expert advice with respect for the separation of powers, not "rushed and poorly drafted" legislation that would end up in the High Court, he said.


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Source: AAP


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