The industry minister, Christopher Pyne, has played down suggestions the federal government is considering applying police control orders to children as young as 12, but has acknowledged it will consider the option if law enforcement agencies say it is needed.
Earlier this week, the attorney general, George Brandis, announced the government would lower the age at which control orders could be issued to 14.
On Friday Pynerejected suggestions it was proposing to drop that even further, following news a 12-year old boy was being monitored by police in relation to suspected terrorism activity.
“I don’t think we’re proposing that one at this particular time,” he told Channel Nine on Friday. “I think that’s a proposal by the New South Wales police.
“I think we will look at it. We will look at all of these measures. Our proposal at the moment is to reduce the age for control orders [to 14]. That’s the legislation we will be bringing into the Parliament,” Pyne said.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told reporters on Friday the government’s approach to radicalisation would be “agile” in the face of the evolving threat to young people, but would not be drawn on the proposal to lower the control order age even further.
He highlighted the importance of both community engagement and policing measures in the the fight to stop the spread of extremism.
“We recognise that we will have to try new approaches. Obviously in the world of the internet, we recognise that we will have to be very forceful and firm in our law enforcement activities,” Turnbull said. “We also have to support families and communities. The Muslim community in particular is our absolutely necessary partner in the fight against violent extremism.”
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, took a conciliatory approach to the matter.
“Labor will look at the proposals that the government puts up,” he told reporters. “we will be constructive. When it comes to terror, it is not a matter of politics, we are in this together.”
But he insisted Labor would not “rubber stamp” badly-written policy.
“We will make sure the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted,” Shorten said.
Not all states and territories are convinced on the merits of lowering the age to 14, but the justice minister, Michael Keenan, told reporters earlier in the week the federal government will press on in trying to achieve consensus.
“We have actually been talking to all of the governments around Australia because it is better if we all move forward together on these matters and it is a shared challenge between the Commonwealth and every single jurisdiction,” he said.
Very few control orders have been issued in the decade since they came into effect. Of the six granted, four have been issued within the last two years.
The orders allow police to track a terror suspect’s movement, and limit their ability to communicate with certain people, access to the internet or carry out some activities.
The government will introduce its fifth tranche of anti-terrorism laws into parliament within weeks. Apart from lowering the control order age, it will create the new offence of incitement of genocide.
