Bureaucrats and ministers have struggled to explain the detail of new counterterrorism measures announced by the Prime Minister this week.

Tony Abbott has appointed a new counterterrorism co-ordinator and given Justice Minister Michael Keenan an extra role.

He has also given veteran Liberal MP Philip Ruddock a new job and announced extra responsibilities for parliamentary secretary Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

And Mr Abbott has announced he will go ahead with plans to strip some people involved in terrorism of their citizenship.

But there has been some confusion about the changes during Senate Estimates hearings.

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LNP senator Ian Macdonald pressed Immigration Department secretary Mike Pezzullo about what Mr Ruddock’s title of special envoy for citizenship and community engagement means.

“What does a special envoy do? Are there some specifics about what he will do, how he will do it and what his duties and powers are?” Senator Macdonald asked.

Mr Pezzullo told him there was some detail covered in the press release and he said there was “certainly detail in the consultation paper that is on the website”.

But the consultation paper does not refer specifically to the special envoy position.

No recommendation for Michael Keenan’s new role

Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong was told the creation of a counterterrorism co-ordinator position, which will be filled by seasoned diplomat Greg Moriarty, was a recommendation of a recent review into counterterrorism.

But she was told that review did not call for the creation of a new position of minister assisting the Prime Minister on counterterrorism, which has been given to Mr Keenan.

The decision to give the Justice Minister new responsibilities was the Prime Minister’s decision, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told her it was the Prime Minister’s decision.

“And as with all things, I mean, ultimately the buck stops with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s very focused on the Government’s responsibilities to keep Australia safe and secure,” Senator Cormann said.

Labor’s Immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the Opposition would carefully examine the Government’s plan to allow the Immigration Minister to remove citizenship from Australians if they had been fighting with terrorist groups.

“There is obviously a convention against statelessness and that’s the kind of thing we need to have a look at when we actually get to see the legislation,” Mr Marles said.

“They’re the kinds of issues that we will scrutinise, but the fundamental principle of updating a long-held idea within our law that people who fight against Australia lose their citizenship is a principle we support and we support it being updated.”

Greens Immigration spokeswoman Penny Wright said the need to protect people from becoming stateless was paramount.

“At a minimum, in relation to any nationality decision — which is fundamental to a person’s ability to exist in the world — there has to be a judicial process,” Senator Wright said.

“It has to be a judge who makes those decisions. There have to be appeal rights.

“The difficulty is that there is no detail here. What we have is a government, in my view, that is making policy on the run.”

– ABC