AUSTRALIA could face a diplomatic backlash over new terror measures which force foreign visitors from a handful of nations to undergo increased security screening.

Under a $69 million program, citizens from 10 nations will be fingerprinted and have their faces scanned as part of rigorous biometric checks on travellers seeking visas to Australia.

Applicants will be photographed and fingerprinted in their home country before a visa is issued.

The government has not yet named the countries on the list, but security sources say it includes Indonesia, India, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan.

"There may well be a diplomatic effort required in respect of some of those countries as you would expect," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Canberra.

Australia is already facing troubles in its relationship with India because of the violence inflicted on some Indian nationals in Melbourne.

And any split with Indonesia would once again damage the fragile relationship with Australia's largest near neighbour.

The new terror measure was included in the long delayed Counter-Terrorism White Paper, which warned of an increasing domestic terrorist threat.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned the threat from terrorism was "permanent" and "persistent".

He said a terrorist attack could occur at any time.

"Prior to the rise of jihadist terrorism, Australia was not a specific target, now Australia is," he said, adding that more than 100 Australians had been killed in overseas attacks since 2001.

Mr Rudd said there had been some success with counter terrorism efforts in South-East Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"But this has been offset by newer areas of concern such as Somalia and Yemen."

Despite the warning of growing domestic threats, Attorney-General Robert McClelland refused to say if the numbers were in the dozens or hundreds.

"To say the numbers are narrow in the context of our multicultural society, but nonetheless they are not insignificant," Mr McClelland told ABC Radio.

Following its release the white paper was widely condemned as lacking policy detail by both the opposition and experts in the field.

Terrorism expert Clive Williams condemned the paper as "predictable", saying it had been released to divert media attention from embattled Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the failed home insulation scheme.

"It covers a lot of familiar ground," Mr Williams said.

"The government needs something to distract from its problems."

Australian National University academic Michael McKinley also slammed the paper.

"It's bollocks," he said.

He said there was nothing new in the paper and it was based on old thinking about al-Qaeda and other threats.

The NSW Civil Liberties Council warned of the increasing threat to privacy from such measures.

"I am very concerned that these things pose an ever increasing invasion of privacy," council president Cameron Murphy said.

"It's highly subjective and discriminatory (and) it provides people with a false sense of security."

He said if Indonesia was to implement a similar scheme against all incoming Australians the government would be "outraged".

Chair of the Senate's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade references committee Russell Trood said the paper did not adequately address the issue of how to counter the threat from homegrown terrorism.


Peter Veness
23rd February 2010

Source: NEWS