CAT/C/AUS/CO/4-5 used exclusively in extreme and limited situations — where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury — as a substitute for lethal weapons and by trained law enforcement personnel only. In that respect, the State party should consider adopting uniform national rules governing the use of such weapons, with a view to ensuring that a high threshold for their use is established and expressly prohibiting their use on children and pregnant women. The State party should also ensure that all jurisdictions strengthen their efforts to effectively provide regular adequate training to law enforcement personnel entitled to use conducted energy weapons. In addition, the State party should ensure that all allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of these weapons are promptly, impartially and thoroughly investigated and that victims obtain redress and fair and adequate compensation. Counter-terrorism legislation 14. Bearing in mind its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/AUS/CO/3, para. 10) and the latest concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/AUS/CO/5, para. 11), the Committee remains concerned about aspects of the State party’s counter-terrorism legislation, including the broad definition of terrorist act as well as the reports concerning the need to further restrict the warrant powers provided to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to detain a person for the purpose of questioning with the possibility of restricting access to a lawyer of choice. In that respect, the Committee appreciates the information provided by the State party that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s detention powers have never been utilized (art. 2). The State party should take the necessary legislative or other measures to adopt a more precise definition of terrorist act as well as to ensure that all counter-terrorism and national security legislation, policies and practices are in full compliance with the Convention and that adequate and effective legal safeguards are in place. Non-refoulement 15. The Committee is concerned at policies and practices currently applied in relation to persons who, irregularly, attempt to arrive or arrive in the State party, in particular the policy of intercepting and turning back boats, without due consideration of the State party’s obligations under article 3 of the Convention. In addition, the Committee is concerned at bills introduced into Parliament that would reduce some of the existing statutory standards against refoulement, in particular the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, which, inter alia, establishes that “an officer’s duty to remove as soon as reasonably practicable an unlawful non-citizen under section 198 [of the Migration Act 1958] arises irrespective of whether there has been an assessment, according to law, of Australia’s non-refoulement obligations in respect of the non-citizen” (arts. 2 and 3). The State party should adopt all the necessary legislative and other measures with a view to ensuring that it effectively meets its non-refoulement obligations under the Convention, in particular with regard to all asylum seekers and other persons in need of international protection who attempt to arrive or arrive in the State party, regardless of the mode and date of arrival. The State party should guarantee that all asylum claims are thoroughly examined and that the persons concerned have a real opportunity to effectively challenge any adverse decisions adopted concerning their claims. It should also guarantee that all asylum seekers have access to independent, qualified and free-of-charge legal assistance during the entire asylum procedure. The State party should also refrain from adopting any legislative or other measures that may lower the existing safeguards and standards of protection, which could constitute a violation of its obligations under the Convention. 5