Australia's spy and counter-terror agencies will receive a $630 million funding boost to fight the threat of home-grown terrorism, which Prime Minister Tony Abbott says ''has not changed'' and is still ''as high as it has ever been''.

Mr Abbott unveiled a suite of counter-terrorism measures on Tuesday that include stronger powers for authorities to detain and question jihadists who have fought alongside terrorists overseas in countries like Syria and Iraq.

This includes lowering the threshold for police wanting to arrest suspected terrorists without a warrant and giving AFP greater powers to seek control orders on returning foreign fighters.

It will also be an offence to travel to designated countries where terrorists are actively operating unless there is a ''legitimate purpose''.

But controversial plans to store the phone and internet records of Australians will be included in a later ''third tranche'' of legislation. The cost of storing and protecting the data is still subject to discussions between the government and telecommunications companies.

Mr Abbott said while the terrorism threat facing Australia ''hasn't changed'' since the setting of ''medium'' following the September 11 attacks, there is ''heightened concern'' about the threat of a local terrorist attack.

He said ''everything that government can reasonably do is being done to ensure our community is safe'' and vowed to leave no stone unturned in ensuring public safety.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the measures were needed because ''hardened home-grown terrorists'' who had been radicalised overseas may use their skills to carry out an attack in Australia.

The government is also proposing giving the foreign minister power to suspend the passports of people ASIO suspects of planning to fight alongside terrorists or returning home from combat.

Mr Abbott also revealed the election promise to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act would be dumped because ''when it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia''.

Mrs Bishop said while the concept of Australians fighting abroad was not new, it was posing a greater threat than ever before.

''Preventing Australian citizens from becoming foreign fighters is now one of our highest national security priorities,'' she said.

''To put the threat in context, prior to the NATO-led experience in Afghanistan our intelligence and security agencies were aware of 30 people, Australian citizens, in Afghanistan fighting against the interest of the West; 25 of them came back to Australia. Five times that number are of interest to our security and intelligence agencies, so this is a far greater challenge for us in sheer numbers.''

Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said the opposition had not yet received a briefing on the announcement and would examine it closely.

''There are always concerns when additional powers are given to police and intelligence agencies. We have to make sure that changes to national security laws are informed by Australian values, which are the values of a free and democratic society,'' he said.

Mr Dreyfus indicated concern about the prospect of extending the use of preventive detention orders, which were due to expire in December 2015, and the prospect of mandatory data retention.

Attorney-General George Brandis says the act of jihadists posting images online, purporting to show themselves engaging in terrorist acts, would be made an offence under the government's proposals.

Getting on the front foot

Government’s boosted powers to combat terrorism

• Mandatory retention of metadata by telecommunications providers
• $630 million boost to national security agencies over four years
• Make it an offence to travel to designated areas without legitimate reason and broaden definition of terrorist organisation to include promotion or encouragement of terrorism
• Make it easier to arrest suspected terrorists without a warrant and extend questioning, detention and control powers
• Empower Foreign Minister to quickly suspend passports
• Improve co-operation with foreign intelligence agencies and improve collection of evidence for offences committed overseas

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