Australia may have been as far removed from the tragic events of September 11, 2001, as any country could be, but it was not untouched or unaffected. Ten Australians were killed by the terrorist attacks on that fateful day, and Prime Minister John Howard, who happened to be in Washington, D.C., preparing to deliver an address the next day to a joint session of Congress, was just a few miles away when one of the hijacked airplanes crashed into the Pentagon (Guerrera, 2004: 12; U.S. State Department, 2001). He was evacuated from his hotel by the U.S. Secret Service and rushed to the basement of the Australian Embassy (Romei, Eccleston, & Shenahan, 2001: 1). Although his planned address was canceled, he was honored with a standing ovation and stayed to witness Congress's historic debate condemning terrorism on the day after the attacks. Cutting short his official state visit to the United States, the Prime Minister returned to Australia, and his government commenced work on what would become an extensive new counterterrorism program.
This chapter examines Australia's new security legislation enacted in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The legislation introduced new offenses and powers similar to those adopted in other countries: amending the criminal law to include new definitions of terrorist acts, including providing financial support to any group on a list of suspected terrorist organizations; establishing procedures for preventive detention and control orders; and authorizing new powers of intelligence gathering, interrogation of terrorist suspects, and electronic surveillance.