Sydney man remanded over anti-terror order

A Sydney man charged with breaching an anti-terrorism control order after allegedly making a number of unauthorised phone calls has been refused bail.

In what is seen as a first, the 21-year-old is accused of breaching a Federal Court interim control order served on him in mid-December.

Such an order is issued at the request of Australian Federal Police, if a court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that such strict conditions could protect the public from a potential terrorist attack.

Relying on telephone intercepts, the crown alleges the man breached his order three times on December 22 and 23 by making two short calls and a third lasting about 20 minutes.

Prosecutors said this showed a complete disregard for Federal Court orders.

But the man's barrister, Peter Lange, said the calls were essentially "banter" and there was no evidence of them having any "downstream consequences".

He said there was no risk his client could interfere with witnesses or evidence if granted bail.

Any potential jail time was also likely to be less than that spent in remand, Mr Lange said.

The court heard that since being taken into custody on Christmas Eve, the man had been classified as an "AA" inmate, meaning he was considered a special risk to national security so had been placed in segregation.

In refusing bail on Thursday, Justice Peter Hall said while parts of the phone conversation might seem "innocuous", he was not in a position to make that determination.

Nor could he say whether the calls had any serious repercussions.

Instead, he said the Federal Court had deemed it fit to make the interim order.

The matter is expected to return to court later this month.