Asio reveals up to 40% of its counterterrorism cases involve far-right violent extremism
Far-right violent extremism constitutes up to 40% of the Australian domestic spy agency’s counter-terrorism caseload, up from 10-15% before 2016, a senior official has said.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s extraordinary increase in focus on the far right in Australia was revealed by its deputy director general of intelligence service delivery, Heather Cook, at a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday.
Cook also warned the Covid-19 pandemic had created both a greater opportunity for far-right extremists to recruit online and a powerful anti-government message for those that resent lockdowns to combat the pandemic.
In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, Asio has been blunt about the risk from far-right terrorism, labelling it an “enduring threat” that is “real and growing”.
Asio’s quantification of its concern at a parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security will play into Labor’s critique that the government has not done enough to combat the threat, failing to proscribe any rightwing extremist groups.
Cook told the committee she would not give “specific numbers” of people under investigation but said “rightwing violent extremism … occupies approximately between 30 and 40% of Asio’s current caseload in counter-terrorism work … an increase from 10 to 15% prior to 2016”.
It’s previously been reported that rightwing extremists made up a third of Asio’s domestic investigations.
But Asio believes that “some of the circumstances of Covid-19 have contributed to an increase in radicalisation, in particular because of the amount of time individuals are spending in isolation, working from home, or not in school”, Cook said on Tuesday.
With more people working remotely and spending increased time online it is “much easier to find likeminded individuals” with exposure to “a much wider variety of chat groups and areas where these views can coalesce”.
“It’s not dissimilar to the way Isil used propaganda to manipulate social media to recruit the young and vulnerable,” the deputy director general said. “We are seeing a similar phenomenon of the extreme rightwing milieu [using technology] to good effect [to recruit]. We are seeing more individuals that appear to be attracted to this ideology.”
Cook said “anti-government sentiment around the world” was a contributing factor, with some joining groups as part of a backlash against “lockdown and protective measures to protect populations against Covid”.
“Speculation about the origins of Covid itself is increasing some … racist views as well,” she said.
Cook said violent rightwing extremism covered those individuals who supported violence to execute their ideological beliefs.
She said there was a difference between holding offensive beliefs – which people were entitled to do – and acting on them. “Our concern kicks in where those beliefs are also supported by a belief violent action is appropriate to support them.”
Labor’s deputy chair, Anthony Byrne, described the evidence regarding the extent of far-right violent extremism as “astonishing” and “very disturbing”, asking for a further private briefing from Asio. The Liberal chair, Andrew Hastie, agreed to the request.
The committee is conducting an inquiry into declared area provisions, which criminalised travel to the alRaqqa province in Syria and Mosul district, Ninewa province in Iraq when they were under the effective control of Isil.
Asio earlier this year advised that despite its increasing focus on the far right the principal source of the terrorist threat remained Sunni Islamist extremism.
Earlier in September, Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, called on tech companies to “disrupt and deter” people attempting to search for rightwing extremist content.
In a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s 2020 counterterrorism dialogue, Keneally said Australia should join its Five Eyes allies in proscribing some far-right groups as terrorist organisations.
Keneally also targeted the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, for his handling of rightwing extremism and noted that some Australian parliamentarians have joined and promoted rightwing social media platforms.
In response to Asio warnings about rightwing extremism in February, Dutton complained that “leftwing terrorism” should also be dealt with, later clarifying that he applied that label to Islamic terrorism and “anybody in between”.
“You can use leftwing to describe everybody from the left to the right,” he told the ABC in February.