As safe as houses?: Commonwealth continuing detention of high risk terrorist offenders

Abstract

The enactment of the Criminal Code Amendment (High Risk Terrorist Offenders) Act 2016 (Cth),1 a Commonwealth post-expiration of sentence continuing detention scheme for persons convicted of nominated terrorism offences,2 reflects continuing themes in the renewal of Australia's terrorism laws. These matters include the ongoing revision and expansion of terrorism laws, reliance upon executive discretion in moderating the application of laws, diminished human rights analysis in an expedited legislative process, as well as the enactment of laws with significant gaps, requiring post-legislated review and remediation.