CANBERRA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Australia's governments have agreed to strengthen the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
Leaders of Australia's states and territories met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at a Coalition of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting focused on counter-terrorism in Canberra on Thursday.
Under new laws agreed on Thursday, Australian authorities will be allowed to detain and question a person who has been arrested on suspicion of terror-related activities for 14 days without pressing charges.
"It's important that someone has been arrested can be detained while evidence is gathered," Turnbull told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
A national facial biometric database combining federal forms of identification with state driver's licenses will also be established to help law enforcement instantly identify a suspected criminal or terrorist.
Under the current system, it can take up to seven days for authorities to confirm a person's identity from an image.
"State and territory road agencies have been providing this information manually for a very long time. To say that it was inefficient is an understatement," Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, said.
Andrews dismissed privacy concerns around the new database, saying civil liberties were a "luxury" in the face of a "very real terror threat."
"We are going to have to curtail the rights and freedoms of a small number of people in order to keep the vast majority of Australians safe," he said.
"That is challenging. But it is necessary.
"It would be unforgivable to think that we could have done more and we chose not to, because of national concerns about civil liberties instead of the very real concerns and the very real threats that terrorism poses to every Australian in every community across our country."
Two new criminal charges were also established by COAG for possessing terrorism-related information materials and conducting terrorist hoaxes.
Australia's national disaster information system, which provides people with information about disasters in their area, will also be expanded to provide information about acts of terrorism.
