Spies, soldiers get new powers to fight IS

Australia's spies have been handed new powers to help the Defence Force in military operations against Islamic State in Iraq.

The lower house on Tuesday approved the third tranche in the government's suite of counter-terrorism laws.

They enable the Australian Secret Intelligence Service to gather intelligence on foreign fighters overseas without having to wait for written approval by a senior minister.

Those powers - which the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation and Australian Signals Directorate have also been handed - would be valid for only 48 hours and in circumstances of "extreme emergencies".

The government argued the existing rules for approving emergency missions in Iraq were slow and threatened opportunities to collect vital intelligence.

The new laws also allow the Australian Federal Police to seek control orders for people suspected of supporting or facilitating foreign fighters.

They also change the means by which the foreign minister, who is responsible for ASIS, authorises the agency to undertake activities relating to a "class of Australian persons" rather than individuals.

Labor backed the bill after the government agreed to a series of amendments from a bipartisan parliamentary committee.

Those changes clarify the definition of a "foreign fighter" and how anti-terrorism control orders work.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus defended Labor's support as the "responsible" thing an opposition would do.

That's despite him arguing the government had not made a case for the laws.

Mr Dreyfus said laws alone would not make a more resilient community - preventing young people from radicalisation would.

Australia would be far safer if these new, "extraordinary" legal powers were never applied on their own.

The government agreed to clarify in the bill that ASIS is prohibited from using torture - a change which the Australian Greens sought in the Senate.

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt said the control orders - which allow police to detain suspects without charge - were against Australian values of freedom.

He labelled the joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security as a "club of two old parties" which acted as a rubber-stamp for intelligence agencies seeking more power.

A fourth counter-terrorism bill that mandates the collection of metadata has yet to clear parliament.