Australia strengthens anti-terror surveillance law

Australia's spy agencies and police will be able to bug telephones and read the e-mails and SMS text messages of terror suspects under new laws passed by parliament yesterday.

Authorities will have easier access to stored communications, such as e-mail, voice mail and text messages, without the need for a special warrant, while the the range of surveillance devices and offences for which a warrant may be obtained has been expanded.

"This legislation means law enforcement and intelligence agencies remain equipped with the tools they need to hunt down and successfully prosecute people engaged in planning or carrying out a terrorist act," Attorney General Philip Ruddock said when the legislation was introduced to parliament earlier this month.

Australia's conservative government, which was re-elected for a fourth straight term at an October 9 election, has steadily beefed up its counter-terror laws since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the Unites States.

Australia, a US ally that committed troops to the Iraq war, has never suffered a major terror attack on home soil, although 88 Australians were among the 202 killed in nightclub bombings on the Indonesian holiday island Bali on October 12, 2002.

Australia was again targeted when a suicide car bomb exploded outside its embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing nine Indonesians, on September 9.