'The threat of terrorism to Australia is something we take very seriously.

'You only have to look back to the raids a few weeks ago, the alleged terrorist incidents that were being planned in this country, to see how much we must keep that at the front of our minds.'

Haneef, a former Gold Coast registrar, was held in Australia for three weeks in July 2007 after being charged with supporting a terrorist organisation by 'recklessly' giving his mobile phone SIM card to people planning bomb attacks in Britain.

The charges against Haneef were eventually dropped and he returned to his family in Bangalore.

AFP dropped its investigation after over a year of pursuing the botched terrorism case against Haneef that caused the police much embarrassment and cost the taxpayer A$8.5 million.