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Australia's intelligence chief says it's "almost guaranteed" that the nation's domestic terrorism threat level will be raised in the future.

Late last year, ASIO boss Mike Burgess lowered the terrorism threat level from probable to possible - a decision that wasn't taken lightly.

While Australia remained a potential terrorist target, he said, there were fewer extremists with the intention to conduct an attack onshore than there were when the threat level was raised in 2014.

At the time of making the threat change, Mr Burgess said it remained "entirely plausible" there would be a terrorist attack in Australia within 12 months and that ASIO's biggest concern was individuals and small groups who could move to violence without warning.

"Tragically, all that came true just a few weeks later."

The Wieambilla tragedy - resulting in the murders of two Queensland police officers and a member of the public - in December showed how even with a lower threat level tackling terrorism remained challenging.

Mr Burgess described the shootings, carried out by Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train, as an "act of politically motivated violence, primarily motivated by a Christian violent extremist ideology".

But ASIO did not find evidence the killers embraced a "racist and nationalist ideology or were Sovereign Citizens, despite their anti-authority and conspiratorial beliefs".

More broadly, he said the reach of extremist content online meant individuals were radicalising within days or weeks.

"So the time between flash to bang is shorter than ever," Mr Burgess said in his latest annual threat assessment, delivered in Canberra on Tuesday.

"The radicalisation of minors is another concerning trend."

The ASIO boss warned terrorism developments overseas could resonate in Australia.

"In our near region, under ISIL's influence, religiously motivated violent extremists are adapting their methods, with suicide bombings becoming more common in the southern Philippines, as well as attacks by females and families in the region more broadly," Mr Burgess said,

"Despite strong counter-terrorism pressure in the Philippines and Indonesia, ISIL-aligned violent extremists will continue to plan and conduct simple, often opportunistic attacks, primarily directed against local security forces and sectarian targets over the next six months."

Terrorism hotspots in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia - where many Australians live and work - were also being watched.

© AAP 2023

The Queensland government's decision to override human rights so child offenders can be jailed for breaching bail has been criticised as "knee-jerk policy" that will inflict harm on vulnerable children.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday unveiled the details of a second major crackdown on youth crime after the fatal stabbing of mother Emma Lovell at her home north of Brisbane, and the death of a man with a disability who was waiting for a taxi in Toowoomba.

The centrepiece of the crackdown is making breaching bail a crime for child offenders, which she the premier said is aimed at 300 to 400 of the state's repeat offenders.

"We will use the full force of the law to target the small cohort of serious repeat offenders that currently pose a threat to community safety," Ms Palaszczuk told parliament.

The government admits parts of the proposed laws are not compatible with the state's Human Rights Act because they could make it more likely children will be detained while awaiting trial.

"For that reason is inconsistent with international standards about the best interests of the child," a government report accompanying the bill said.

However, it said, the measure is needed to respond to a "small cohort of serious repeat young offenders" and is deemed necessary "in this exceptional case, to override the HR act".

Prisoner advocacy group Sisters Inside said not all the children targeted by the laws are violent and in some cases their guardian is the state

"The state has failed them," chief executive Debbie Kilroy told reporters.

"We have the answers, we have the solutions. But governments just want to do knee-jerk reaction policy and enact legislation that inflicts harm on children for generations to come."

"This is a legacy of ongoing harm with Aboriginal communities, and on the other hand, they talk about Treaty. I don't know how the two marry."

The opposition accused Labor of a major backflip in adopting a signature Liberal National Party policy "word for word", after the government dismissed criminalising breaching bail for more than two years.

The Greens said Labor's child bail policy was even worst than the previous LNP government's policy.

"Instead of reheating old LNP policies, Labor should fix the basics in this state like the housing crisis, underfunded state schools and a strained healthcare system," Greens MP Michael Berkman said.

The Justice Reform Initiative has also criticised both major parties for supporting hardline child bail policies, saying they would increase the number of children in prison.

The proposed laws also include harsher prison terms for car thieves, new penalties for people who boast about crime on social media and require judges to take the histories of child offenders into account when deciding on bail applications.

There will also be funds to speed up sentencing in children's courts, a trial of car engine immobilisers to prevent theft and an expanded police "flying squad" that can be rapidly deployed to problem areas.

The state government also plans to build two "therapeutic" youth detention centres, but Katter Australia leader Robbie Katter was sceptical.

"They've been very vague on the details of this new flavour of facility ... I dont think you'll find anything really different," he said.

The youth justice bill will go through a two-week committee inquiry before returning to parliament for a final vote, which it is set to pass.

© AAP 2023

Six people have been killed in an earthquake which struck the border region of Turkey and Syria, two weeks after a larger quake killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.

Monday's quake, this time with a magnitude of 6.4, was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

CNN Turk showed a rescue team climbing a ladder to enter one building where some people had been trapped after the latest tremor. It said the quake struck while people were in the already damaged building to retrieve possessions before it was demolished.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 294 people were injured in Monday evening's earthquake, with 18 seriously hurt and transported to hospitals in Adana and Dortyol.

Patients were evacuated from some health facilities that had remained in operation after the massive tremors two weeks ago, as cracks had emerged in the buildings, Koca said on Twitter.

In Samandag, where the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD had reported one person dead on Monday, residents said more buildings collapsed but most of the town had already fled after the initial earthquakes. Mounds of debris and discarded furniture lined the dark, abandoned streets.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Turkey on Monday that Washington would help "for as long as it takes" as rescue operations in the wake of the February 6 earthquake and its aftershocks wound down, and the focus turned to toward shelter and reconstruction work.

The death toll from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing.

President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.

Total US humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $US185 million ($A268 million), the US State Department said.

Among the survivors of the earthquakes are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to health services, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency has said.

In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most deaths have been in the northwest, where the UN said 4525 people were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating aid efforts.

Syrian officials said 1414 people were killed in areas under the control of Assad's government.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy of 14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria from Turkey on Sunday to assist in rescue operations.

The World Food Program has also been pressuring authorities in that region to stop blocking access for aid from Syrian government-controlled areas.

Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have returned to their homes in northwest Syria to get in touch with relatives affected by the devastation.

At the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing, hundreds of Syrians lined up starting early on Monday to cross.

© RAW 2023