Labor pushes for greater response to extreme rightwing terrorism threat

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/18/labor-pushes-for-greater

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Labor MPs have welcomed spy agency Asio’s recognition that the threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia is on the rise but will now push the government to do more to counter the threat.

On Thursday, Labor MP Anne Aly – a former academic specialising in countering violent extremism – said the recognition of the threat was “a long time coming” and suggested Australia had been slow to recognise the alleged Christchurch massacre shooter was “one of us”.

Ed Husic questioned why Asio had not noted the links between rightwing extremists in the United States and Australia, and suggested the federal government spends “more money on government advertising than on countering violent extremism”.

Threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased, Asio says

In August, Husic wrote to the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, warning that the series of “horrific mass shootings in the United States” citing the Christchurch massacre as inspiration indicated that extremist violence was crossing borders and inspiring copycat attacks.

“On Australian soil we have seen reports of escalating and brazen extremist white supremacist activity or public demonstrations of support for these extremist views, notably the far-right rally held in St Kilda earlier this year,” Husic said.

Aly has shared her expertise already with the New Zealand royal commission examining the Christchurch mosques attack and will meet the inquiry team again in November when they visit Australia ahead of delivering a report in December.

Aly told Guardian Australia she had shared Asio’s assessment of an increased risk in rightwing extremist violence for five years and welcomed “the recognition of white supremacist/alt-right ideologies that fuel violent extremism”.

Aly noted that Asio had said a future extreme rightwing-inspired attack would most likely be committed by a lone actor or small group, adding that lone actors are “mobilised through some kind of social network, usually through the internet” such as chat spaces and gaming rooms.

Aly said counter-terror agencies should be monitoring and evaluating people’s public online behaviour for “tell-tale signs”, as many perpetrators of violence announce intentions ahead of acting.

Australia needs to tackle rhetoric used to “justify and embolden” rightwing extremism and to go through a process of introspection to identify “the kinds of attitudes that can normalise violence”, she said.

“It’s really hard to turn the mirror on yourself – it’s much easier when terrorism is committed by others, but when terrorism is committed by ‘us’, that’s a much harder thing to accept.”

She said the response that the alleged Christchurch shooter is “not one of us” is wrong. “No, actually, he is [one of us],” she said.

The massacre of 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch in March, for which 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant has been charged, prompted renewed scrutiny of the far right including by Australia’s home affairs department.

After the attacks, Scott Morrison called for less “mindless tribalism” in politics and for Australians to “disagree better” but there has been little sense of collective responsibility in Australia despite the increased mobilisation of the far right.

Husic said that Australia needed to take rightwing extremism more seriously, citing a trial in Victoria of a man charged with preparing a terrorist act against left wing and Muslim groups and an incident involving a man with a machete approaching a mosque at Holland Park in Brisbane.

“Last year alone we saw 50 terror-related deaths in the US overwhelmingly as the result of far right extremism,” he told Sky News.

Husic noted the Asio report had discussed international threats of terrorism from Europe, Asia and the Middle East but made “no reference” to the US which suggested there was “very little evidence” it was watching events there which “might have an impact on us, because [the threat is] crossing borders”.

In the same annual report that it acknowledged the growing rightwing terror threat, Asio warned that its increasing workload from “unprecedented” levels of foreign interference and espionage is stretching its current resources.

But on Thursday, Dutton played down the concern, telling reporters in Canberra that Asio’s funding “goes up every year”.

“We will put more money in each year and, as I say, the staffing numbers grow each year,” he said. “Look, every agency head across the commonwealth wants more money into their agency, and every minister wants more money into their departments and their agencies.”

Husic said he would be “very concerned” if agency requests for more resources to combat violent extremism were ignored.

“I urge the Coalition government to take this threat more seriously … If we can move quickly on farm protests we can also move on this.”