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States move laws to fight terror at home

New laws introduced in NSW and Victorian parliaments aim to help authorities keep terror suspects on a shorter leash.

NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton.
The NSW government plans to make it harder for people with links to terrorism to get bail. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Authorities will be able to hold more suspected terrorists in custody under laws on the way for Victoria and NSW.

In Melbourne, Attorney-General Martin Pakula has promised beefed-up legislation that will allow police to hold a suspect under a preventative detention order even if they only know their alias.

The updated laws will also allow police to have remote access to computers.

"At the moment when police apply for a preventative detention order sometimes they're unaware of the exact name of the suspect because they know the suspect by an alias," Mr Pakula told reporters on Tuesday.

"And so under these changes they will be able to use the alias in the application for a preventative detention order."

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Police would also be able to access computers remotely with a warrant.

In NSW, Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton has introduced a promised bill that, if passed, would make it harder for defendants with known links to terror organisations or past terror convictions to be released on bail.

The laws were announced in August, but Ms Upton has told NSW Parliament that the killing of NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng by a radicalised teenager made delivering the new legislation all the more urgent.

"It is a reminder that our battle against terrorism is a battle that is being fought right here at home," Ms Upton said.

"It is a different battle: it is a battle without a clearly defined enemy.

"We are fighting against ideologies which have poisoned minds, including those of our youth."

It came as state and federal police representatives, meeting in Adelaide, called for a new national intelligence database to prevent future domestic terrorist attacks, replacing two 30-year-old systems with one real-time system.

Police Federation of Australia President Mark Carroll urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to make funding available in the next budget for "better technology and resources so that we can do our job".


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