Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 - Australia

Overview: In 2016, Australia continued to strengthen counterterrorism laws; investigate and disrupt suspected terrorists; and maintain high levels of cooperation with the United States and international partners, including through the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Australia plays a major role in the coalition as a leading contributor of military support, humanitarian assistance, and efforts to disrupt foreign terrorist fighters. Australia contributed more than 300 personnel, including a Special Operations Task Group, to provide training and advising capacities in Iraq; and provided strike operation capability in Syria and Iraq by contributing F/A-18 Hornet fighters, a tanker aircraft, and an airborne control aircraft. In July, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Australia would expand training to paramilitary police agencies, including Iraqi federal and local police and border guard forces. Additionally, Australia works with a number of partners in Southeast Asia to build capacities and strengthen the response to the foreign terrorist fighters and ISIS threats in the region.

Michael Keenan, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counterterrorism, noted in November that the preeminent terrorist threat in Australia is from individuals or small groups who use simple attack methodologies. These lone offender threats were not exclusive to violent Islamist extremism; a right-wing violent extremist was also charged with terrorism-related offenses in Melbourne.

2016 Terrorist Incidents: Australia experienced one terrorist-related attack and disrupted five plots. The attack involved a 22-year-old man inspired by ISIS, who non-fatally stabbed a 59-year-old man in Sydney before being arrested and charged with attempted murder and terrorism offenses.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Australian government continued to apply its comprehensive counterterrorism legislation against domestic threats and passed additional legislation to strengthen national security protections. In December, the Australian Parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (High Risk Terrorist Offenders) Bill 2016, which allows for the ongoing detention of high-risk terrorist offenders, approaching the end of their custodial sentences, but who pose an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offense if released. Another amendment this year to the Commonwealth Criminal Code empowered the Australian military to target a broader range of ISIS operatives, consistent with international law.

In July, Australia launched the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), which combined Australian law enforcement and criminal information agencies to provide a broader picture of imminent threats, and help identify links between organized crime and national security investigations, including foreign fighters, terrorists, extremists, and their supporters. The Australian Counterterrorism Center was restructured in 2016 to better coordinate Australia's counterterrorism efforts and to ensure that Commonwealth agencies work together on operations, policy challenges, and capability development.

The U.S. and Australian law enforcement communities have excellent information sharing and counterterrorism collaboration. U.S. law enforcement agencies routinely coordinated investigations with their Australian counterparts, resulting in numerous arrests and convictions. Following the July terrorist attack in the French city of Nice, Australia completed a government review of soft targets to identify vulnerabilities and was in the process of finalizing a plan to address this issue by the end of 2016.

Australia's border security remains robust. Australia's lead agencies take a proactive stance and have increased security overall. Passport controls are in place using INTERPOL, biographic, and biometric methods. Approximately 190 Australian passports have been canceled or refused for citizens attempting to travel or who have traveled to Iraq or Syria.

Australia enjoys strong partnerships on information sharing with the United States and other Five Eye partners (Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). Australia created a Border Intelligence Fusion Center in 2016, which combines Australia's major intelligence agencies in a single location. Australia also shares port information with regional partners throughout Southeast Asia.

More than 100 Australians have traveled to fight with terrorist groups in Iraq or Syria, and approximately 200 people in Australia are being investigated for providing support to terrorists. Australia passed a law aimed at countering foreign terrorist fighters in 2014 and increased the resources and authorities of law enforcement and security services, enabling a number of foreign terrorist fighter arrests.

Since September 2014, a total of 56 people, including six juveniles, have been sentenced or are facing terrorism-related charges as a result of 24 counterterrorism operations. Significant law enforcement actions in 2016 included:

• In May, five Melbourne men were arrested in Queensland for allegedly planning to leave Australia in a small boat to join the ISIS-affiliated terrorist groups in the Philippines. They were charged with making preparations for incursions into foreign countries to engage in hostile activities.

• In August, police arrested a man believed to be a right-wing violent extremist who was allegedly plotting to attack two locations. He was charged with collecting or making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act and planning or preparing for a terrorist act.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Australia continued its regional and global leadership in counterterrorist finance. As a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and a co-chair of the FATF's Risks, Trends, and Methods Group, Australia recently obtained observer status in the Middle East and North Africa's Financial Action Task Force, a FATF-style regional body. Australia is a founding member and co-chair of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), a FATF-style regional body, and a co-chair of the APG Mutual Evaluation Working Group. Australia's financial intelligence unit, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), is a founding member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and assisted Southeast Asian countries in developing a regional profile of financial characteristics of foreign terrorist fighters. Australia also serves as the chair of Egmont's Information Exchange Working Group and is a core member and major contributor to Egmont's multilateral ISIS project.

Australia faces a range of terrorist financing risks and counters the risks with a comprehensive legal and administrative framework. Australia can automatically freeze United Nations (UN)-designated terrorism-related assets and has made numerous domestic designations. Australia implements its obligations to restrict terrorist financing in accordance with the UN Security Council ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qa'ida sanctions regime.

AUSTRAC, in partnership with law enforcement agencies, detects, prevents, and deters money laundering and financing of terrorist activities, and also regulates money transfers and remittance services. Regulated businesses include financial, gambling, remittance, and bullion services, which are subject to Know Your Customer requirements, transaction monitoring, and ongoing customer due diligence requirements. Australia is moving to regulate e-currencies, such as Bitcoin. Charities are not a regulated sector for the purposes of "suspicious matter reports" (SMRs).

In 2016, AUSTRAC reported a 201 percent increase in International Intelligence Exchanges with 1,262 incoming requests and 461 outgoing requests. During the 2015-2016 fiscal year, AUSTRAC received 78,846 SMRs, comparable to the previous year, but the number of SMRs related to suspected terrorist financing increased 7 percent. Applying rigorous detection and monitoring processes, AUSTRAC referred 390 SMRs amounting to US $58.47 million in the 2016 fiscal year to the Australian Federal Police and the Australia Security Intelligence Organization on suspicion of terrorism-financing links. The 390 reports were linked primarily to Australians traveling to join terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. Using an active alert system, AUSTRAC notified partner agencies of transactions relating to persons of interest, including more than 100 persons linked to counterterrorism matters.

In April, AUSTRAC co-hosted the Experts Symposium on Regional Risks of Terrorist Finance in Medan, Indonesia, which planned a regional risk assessment on terrorist financing. In June, AUSTRAC co-led the Regional Risk Assessment Workshop in Manila, Philippines, hosted by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Philippines' financial intelligence unit. In August, AUSTRAC established a cyber-team to identify online terrorist financing activities, money laundering, and financial fraud. For the second consecutive year, Australia and Indonesia co-hosted the Counterterrorist Financing (CTF) Summit in Bali in August, attended by more than 200 specialists from more than 20 countries. During the Summit, Australia launched the world's first regional risk assessment, discussed earlier in Medan. In November, AUSTRAC announced a risk assessment of the non-profit sector in Australia to improve understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks in this sector. AUSTRAC also signed Memoranda of Understanding for the exchange of financial intelligence and other information with Cambodia, China, and Jordan.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Countering Violent Extremism: The Australian Attorney-General's Department (AGD) leads the nation's countering violent extremism (CVE) efforts. Following a department restructure this year, the AGD established the CVE Center, which is composed of four overlapping streams that build strength in diversity and social participation, target work with vulnerable communities and institutions, address terrorist propaganda online, and counter radicalization to violence. The Challenging Terrorist Propaganda in Australia program has been operating since July 2015. State and territory-led intervention programs identify radicalized and at-risk individuals and provide tailored services to address the drivers of their radicalization to violence. The Australian government coordinates support and funding to state and territory governments to implement programs. In May, the Australian government announced an additional investment of US $3.73 million to communities impacted by violent extremism and to prevent young people from being attracted to violent extremism online. The Australian government created the Living Safe Together website (http://www.livingsafetogether.gov.au/), which offers multiple resources and perspectives on building community resilience to violent extremism.

Radar, a CVE intervention tool, was designed and implemented nationally by the AGD. It connects at-risk individuals with a range of government and non-government services that assist them in disengaging from violent extremism. The New South Wales Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command, in cooperation with the New South Wales Department of Justice and other stakeholders, is researching further tools that can be introduced to add value to the existing Radar tool, with emphasis on the assessment phase of the intervention program.

The Government of Australia continued to engage with social media companies about monitoring and removing content. In October, the AGD CVE Center participated in a youth engagement forum in Melbourne in partnership with Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter. The Australian government supported a private media partnership with the Islamic Council of Victoria to develop CVE workshop materials and deliver training in four pilot cities. Australia commenced work on a policy to address the return of the families of foreign terrorist fighters, using a whole-of-government approach focusing on social services assistance. In November, Australia hosted an international meeting in Melbourne attended by nine countries on countering violent extremist behavior.

International and Regional Cooperation: Australia strongly supported counterterrorism efforts in regional and multilateral organizations in 2016. Australia is a member of the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, the Pacific Island Forum, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. Australia also volunteered to chair the Counter-Terrorism Working Group of APEC. As a member of the GCTF, Australia co-chairs with Indonesia the Detention and Reintegration Working Group, which focuses on capacity building for corrective services officials and prisons officers; strengthening security of detention facilities; detention and correction programs for terrorist detainees; and developing pre-release and post-release/aftercare programs.

Bilaterally, Australia supports a range of capability development and capacity-building activities with bilateral partners, particularly in the Indo-Pacific Region. Indonesia continued to use the Australia-supported Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation, which has trained more than 18,000 police officers from 70 countries since its inception in 2004, as a regional resource in the fight against transnational crime with a focus on counterterrorism. Australia has also concluded memoranda of understanding on counterterrorism with 17 countries.

Australia attended the East Africa CVE Center of Excellence and Counter-Messaging Hub Coordination Meeting in New York in September. In October, Australia and the International Organization for Migration co-hosted a Regional Biometric Data Exchange Solution Workshop in Bangkok, and attended the U.S.-Japan-Australia Counterterrorism Dialogue Trilateral in Tokyo. Australia supported the Annual International CVE Research Conference in Jakarta in December.