The Australian government endorsed new security laws today that will help authorities monitor the e-mails and phone text messages of people suspected of planning terror attacks.
The new laws would allow police and spy agencies to intercept e-mails and text messages and to listen to voice messages on suspects' phones. At the moment, authorities need a warrant to bug phone calls and a separate search warrant to look at e-mails and text messages.
Other changes would allow Prime Minister John Howard's re-elected conservative government to protect secret information that might be brought forward during a trial on terror charges, and would modernise laws on the use of surveillance devices.
The three bills will now be introduced to parliament during its first sitting since last month's general election tomorrow.
The legislation was among bills that lapsed before the vote, in which Mr Howard's government won a fourth term, and that will be reintroduced to parliament.
The developments came as Australian newspapers reported a group of men known to police had acquired a boat and made several trips around Sydney Harbour, where they showed particular interest in an oil terminal.
The Sydney Morning Heraldsaid one of those on the boat was Saleh Jamal (29), a year-old convert to militant Islam who is in jail in Lebanon on suspicion of terror offences. Authorities could not be sure if the trips were reconnaissance missions, the newspaper said.