Australia to Bring in Tougher Anti-Terror Laws

Australia's government will next week introduce tough new legislation in parliament to tackle a growing threat of terrorism, reports said Saturday, in the aftermath of the biggest crackdown in the country's history.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will seek sweeping counter-terrorism powers when the proposals go before the house on Wednesday, NewsCorp Australia reported.

Thursday's unprecedented raids in Sydney and Brisbane had foiled a plot by Islamic State jihadists to carry out gruesome "demonstration executions" that could have taken place within days, Abbott said.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan explained that the new laws would "modernize" existing legislation to counter such threats.

"The threat of the random act of violence that was acted upon on Thursday's raids is obviously quite different to the sorts of traditional terrorist activity that we might have been targeting," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday.

"We need to make sure that we've got a regime in Australia that's modern and flexible," Keenan said but gave no details.

Security has been stepped up in the capital Canberra, and at military bases, airports and sporting events after parliament and government officials had been mentioned as potential targets in "chatter" between extremist networks in the Middle East and Australia.

Fifteen people were arrested when hundreds of police officers raided dozens of homes in Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday, but only one person remained in custody on Saturday, officials said.

Omarjan Azari, 22, was charged with planning a terrorist act that prosecutors said was intended to "shock, horrify and terrify" the community and involved the "random selection of persons to rather gruesomely execute" on camera.

Federal police had for the first time used preventive detention orders to hold three of the 15 without charge, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The men were released Friday.

The orders are designed to counter an imminent threat of attack and can be used to hold people for as long as 14 days.

But Abbott says current legislation is inadequate to fight the threats to Australia from groups such as the Islamic State organization, which he has described as the nation's greatest national security challenge.

Under the new powers, advocating a terrorist act will become illegal, The Weekend Australian said.

The new offense will carry a maximum five-year jail sentence and make it illegal for an individual to intentionally counsel, promote, encourage or urge a terrorist act, the newspaper said.

Police will also be given powers to secretly search the homes of suspects.

The government will further seek powers to proscribe visits to cities or regions where terror groups are active. People traveling to such areas without a valid reason could face prosecution.

"There's legislation that will shortly come before the parliament to boost the range of offenses," Abbott said Thursday.

"It's not always easy to prove that someone has been engaged in terrorist activity overseas.

"It's often very hard to get witnesses... so we'll be strengthening offenses in this area," he said.

The government believes up to 60 Australians are fighting alongside IS jihadists, while another 100 are actively working to support the movement at home.

Canberra has committed 600 troops and aircraft to the US-led coalition gearing up to destroy the IS organization in Iraq.