Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

(1) Expressing support for the many multicultural and First Nations Australians who are vilified and threatened by far-right extremists, and who deserve to feel safe in their communities, and;

(2) The Prime Minister, Mr. Morrison, and Minister for Home Affairs, Mr. Dutton, taking action to combat the spread of far-right extremism and destructive conspiracy theories, both within their own party and in the broader community.

It has been said that generals too often prepare to fight the last war, instead of the next one. Now, that might be unfair to generals, but it is certainly a fair comment on the attitude of the Morrison government in regard to protecting Australia's national security, maintaining public safety and sustaining Australia's multicultural, pluralist democracy.

As we know from the evidence given at Senate estimates by the ASIO Director-General, Mr Mike Burgess, the activities of far Right white supremacist movements is increasing in this country. The agency now spends up to 40 per cent of its time keeping far Right groups under surveillance. Mr Burgess told the hearing at some length:

… right-wing extremists are more organised, sophisticated, ideological and active than previous years. While we have been actively monitoring the threat for some time, we are reprioritising … to focus additional resources on the evolving threat. … Many of these groups and individuals have seized upon COVID-19, believing it reinforces the narrative and conspiracies at the core of the ideologies. They see the pandemic as proof of the failure of globalisation, multiculturalism and democracy, and confirmation that societal collapse and a race war are inevitable.

That was presented at estimates to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on 20 October last year. The Director-General's comments should be added to the observations made during the hearing by the AFP Deputy Commissioner, Ian McCartney, who noted that right-wing extremists had been more widespread in Australia than Islamic inspired extremism. Mr McCartney said:

… Islamic-inspired extremism is … predominantly, and historically, … centred in Sydney and Melbourne and to a lesser extent in Brisbane. What we see with right-wing extremism, particularly the effect and power of the internet in terms of those sites, is that it's apparent that it's more spread throughout Australia.

These comments are to be considered the assessments of two of our most senior public servants who are directly concerned with Australia's internal security. They acknowledge that far Right extremism is growing and has spread virulently through the internet.

Now that should not be surprising. It's consistent with what we know about the growth of Neo-Fascist and white supremacist movements in other liberal democracies. But the response of the Morrison government to all of this has mostly been a deafening silence. I don't expect this government should comment directly on specific intelligence investigations, but surely the government should insist publicly, clearly and emphatically that it is committed to upholding the values of Australia's pluralist democracy. It should reassert to ethnic and religious minorities who are threatened by far Right extremists that their safety will be protected in this country and that they share the rights and liberties that are available to all Australians, irrespective of their background, irrespective of their religious beliefs. How different to the past decades. The fears of jihadist terrorism have sparked a legislative frenzy. From 2014 to 2020, some 31 items of national security legislation were passed by this parliament. Powers of the security agencies have increased, including powers of detention and surveillance. There have been opportunities to actually deprive people of their citizenship.

Don't misunderstand me. The Labor Party have backed those measures, and we have accepted the necessity to improve some of those measures with amendments. But what I'm drawing attention to is that the zeal with which successive coalition governments have pursued these threats is in stark contrast to the stony silence that largely continues to be the government's response to the warnings of our security agencies about the far Right. It took media reports of a neo-Nazi training camp in the Grampians in Victoria, during the Australia Day weekend, to get any acknowledgement by the government of what actually was happening there. The Treasurer, Mr Frydenberg, condemned what could no longer be ignored. But what has the Prime Minister said about the matter?

It's not only the warnings of the security agencies that the government should have heeded; the growth of the far Right has been evident throughout the West, internationally. We saw the situation with the Christchurch mosque massacre in March last year, in which the perpetrator was an Australian who might well have committed those same atrocities here. Look at what happened in Norway in 2011, when 69 young political activists from the Norwegian Labour Party were gunned down—69 young people at a summer camp. Look at the events in Washington just this January, inspired by the most senior members of that administration, who had been led by far Right people driven by the sorts of internet-propagated fantasies that Deputy Commissioner McCartney drew attention to that operate in this country.

These events, and those behind them, have a disturbing history. They date back to the end of the Cold War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was the presentation of a triumph of liberal democracy. That triumph was short lived, because reactionary nationalism, incited by far Right populists, has proved to be far more potent than liberalism. Look at the situation in Russia. Look at the situation in Hungary, where liberal democracy has been all but extinguished. The Orban government in Hungary has undermined the country's independent judiciary and free media. It's been whipped up by a xenophobia about immigrants and ancient hatreds of minorities. We're seeing similar trends in Poland. We're seeing the re-emergence of SS remembrance and glorification in eastern Europe. But far Right extremism is not confined to eastern Europe. We see it in France, Germany and Italy. We see it in the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom. We see it in Donald Trump's presentation and mobilisation in the United States. These are dark times, far from the expectations of the neoliberal triumphalism of the early 1990s.

I urge my colleagues, particularly those conservative colleagues, to look at the historic lessons that can be drawn from this. Recent works such as the book The Light that Failed: a Reckoning by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes are object lessons in the dangers of ignoring this. The Morrison government should have learned from this historic experience and from contemporary examples, because all too often members of this government have been playing with the far Right in this country. I'll leave the details to my colleague Senator Ayres of what happens when ideologues exploit the fears of people in a manner that undermines the legitimacy and the authority of democratic institutions.

Is there any wonder that there has been a reduction in trust in political institutions in this country? People have been encouraged to blame minorities for their exclusion from the opportunities that a fair society can offer them. It's only a short step to blaming the system itself. This is how fascism starts. The Morrison government needs to acknowledge what is happening. It needs to ignore the cranks and conspiracy theorists on its own back bench and it needs to ensure that Australia remains a free, fair and democratic society and that we defend those principles of democracy that are so important to the future prosperity of this nation.