Prime Minister Tony Abbott has finally unveiled details of a proposal that would see terrorists both in Australia and overseas stripped of their Australian citizenship in a move designed to "stop terrorists from being loose on our streets".
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The changes, which will be made by expanding the operation of section 35 of the Australian Citizenship Act, will only apply to dual nationals.
And the new laws could be applied to up to half of the Australian citizens who are dual nationals currently believed to be fighting overseas at the moment with terrorist groups, Mr Abbott said.
The Prime Minister said, for example, there were currently 120 Australians fighting with Daesh, also known as the Islamic State, with another 160 Australians supporting them through financing and recruiting.
One of the measures, Mr Abbott said, "is renunciation by conduct. So if you engage in terrorism against Australia, as is currently the case with section 35 in respect of a foreign Army, you will automatically forfeit your citizenship."
"The other is revocation by conviction, so if you are convicted of a terrorist offence, again, there will be an assumption that your Australian citizenship is forfeited, should you be a dual national."
The Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security will also consider whether the law should be allowed to operate retrospectively.
"Given that we have a number of dual citizens currently in jail after terrorist convictions, the committee should consider whether it should have retrospective operation at least in those cases," he said.
"There is a further very large question and that is what do we do about the 50 per cent or so of those Australians who are currently known to be fighting overseas with terrorist armies who are not dual citizens."
The question of what to do with people who are solely Australian nationals will be consdered by a review being led by Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Philip Ruddock.
Mr Abbott flagged new laws in the coming months designed to tackle this issue.
Asked if the government was still attracted to stripping the citizenship of people who were solely Australian nationals, Mr Abbott said: "That's something which the government will reconsider, along with what might possibly be done in respect of people fighting with terrorist armies overseas who are wholly and solely Australian citizens."
The changes represent a less ambitious proposal than had been originally flagged, which would have given Immigration Minister Peter Dutton the power to revoke citizenship and which had been roundly attacked by many top lawyers.
The measures are also significantly less ambitious than a proposal that would have allowed the minister to strip a sole Australian national of his or her citizenship, a proposal that provoked an extraordinary protest from six members of the cabinet.
"I want to stress that this is about terrorists. It's about terrorists. Now, it so happens that if you are a dual citizen, there is a particular action that we can take against you if you are a terrorist, but this is about targeting terrorists. It's not about having a go at dual citizens," Mr Abbott said.
"If you are a terrorist, and you are a dual national, we'll do our best to strip the citizenship of you."
Mr Abbott dismissed suggestions the proposal was a long way back from what had been originally proposed.
"We have wanted to strip citizenship from terrorists who are dual nationals, that's what we have wanted to do, and we have wanted to be able to do so without needing, if you like, a prior judicial process, without needing a prior judicial process and that is exactly what we believe we have achieved through this legislation."
There are currently 21 organisations prescribed by the Attorney-General George Brandis.
