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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Growing concerns about far-right extremists in Australia has led to the creation of a new federal inquiry, to examine the threat, and how to respond to it.

But the inquiry has revealed that one police force, is significantly out of step with our national security agencies.

Today, Osman Faruqi on the emboldened far-right movement in Australia and whether enough is being done to counter them.

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RUBY:

Os, this week, you reported on some activities involving a far right group in Sydney. Can you tell me about what you found?

OSMAN:

Yes. So a couple of weekends ago, a group of about 10 far-right activists went on a hike in the bush in northern Sydney, and they were members of a far right group called the National Socialist Network.

It's a relatively new group. It's only a few years old. And during that hike, the members sort of started wearing balaclavas covering their face. They're wearing all black and they were holding up a flag of the group and they took a photo and they posted that on their social media channels. That whole activity might sound like a pretty innocuous affair.

But why this is so significant is that it comes off the back of a similar march organised by the National Socialist Network in Victoria back in January.

And that one involved 30 members, and it involved them heading to the Grampians in western Victoria and on that trip.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 1:

“When German national Saskia Alling moved to Victoria, this is the last thing she thought she’d encounter.”

Archival tape -- Saskia Alling:

“We heard them starting to yell Heil Hitler…”

OSMAN:

They conducted training, they raised Nazi salutes.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 1:

“Some are wearing army fatigues and all are covering their faces.”

OSMAN:

They chanted white supremacist and anti-Semitic slogans. And they did all of this while marching through the village of Halls Gap in broad daylight.

Archival tape -- Saskia Alling:

“They were doing the Hitler salute to people in town, to just randoms, to everyone who walked past them.”

OSMAN:

And, you know, after that activity, they posted photos of themselves on social media again including one of them in front of a burning cross.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 1:

“They burn a cross, raise their arms in Nazi salutes and record this video…”

Archival tape -- National Socialist Network:

“Klu Klux Klan! Klu Klux Klan! Klu Klux Klan!...”

RUBY:

Right. Wow. OK, and so what was the the fallout from that? Did police do anything? Did anyone do anything?

OSMAN:

So a lot of the locals in Halls Gap and around the Grampians are very concerned. When they saw this and they called police, Victoria Police said that they did investigate and they spoke to some people, but they determined that no laws were broken and that was basically the end of it.

But the fact that these public activities seem to be getting more and more common, that's concerned a lot of experts and they're saying that it demonstrates a shift in their strategy and shows how they're adopting an aggressive, more bold kind of approach, one that is much more highly public and visible. And they're showing greater signs of strength than in the past.

RUBY:

OK, and so when you say that these things are becoming more common and the approach that these far right groups are taking is becoming more bold, is there a way to quantify that? Do we know just how much more common they're becoming?

OSMAN:

Yes. So there's quite a few different far right groups in Australia operating right now and the National Socialist Network is probably the most visible of these groups. And it in particular has been growing quite a bit lately, especially in terms of its social media presence and the amount of people who are joining in signing up to its channels and those of some of its more prominent members.

And a lot of that growth is really due to this increasingly aggressive public approach that they've taken.

Archival tape -- National Socialist Network:

”These people are cowards, they’re vermin, they’re rats…”

OSMAN:

Last week, one of the group's key members was charged by police with affray after he allegedly assaulted a black security guard at Channel Nine's Melbourne headquarters. He was filming himself in the lobby of Channel Nine.

He was demanding to speak to journalists because A Current Affair was doing a story on the group at the time and he was escorted out by the security guard. And that's when that confrontation occurred.

Archival tape -- Security Guard:

“Sorry, you can't film in the building”

Archival tape -- National Socialist Network Member:

“...But now they’ve got security coming.”

Archival tape -- Security Guard:

“I didn’t touch you, I didn’t touch you”

OSMAN:

That whole video was posted on his social media channel on Telegram, which is the social media site often used by the far right. It was then kind of re-syndicated by all kinds of media networks in Australia and around the world.

Archival tape -- National Socialist Network Member:

“Don’t you you fucking touch me!” [Fight ensues]

OSMAN:

That incident led to a 30 percent increase in his social media followers in just a few days after.

RUBY:

Okay, and so can you tell me more about why we're seeing this happen at this particular moment in time? What is it that is, that is underpinning this?

So far right groups in Australia have been growing for the past few years, but a lot of the experts I've spoken to have detected a shift in the last few months and they pin it to the Capitol protests in Washington, D.C. back on January 6.

Archival tape -- U.S. Capitol rioters:

“If they don’t fix this shit!...”

OSMAN:

They say that has really kicked things up a notch, not just in the States, but here in Australia as well, with a lot of groups and activists looking overseas for inspiration.

Archival tape -- U.S. Capitol rioters:

“USA, USA, USA!”

OSMAN:

We saw far right groups, most prominently the Proud Boys, take to the streets and essentially try and occupy Congress as part of this failed insurrection.

And, you know, of course, we've seen the Proud Boys here in Australia as well. Quite a few of them took part in a public protest against an invasion day rally in Melbourne back in January 26th.

And groups like the Proud Boys, but also the National Socialist Network are basically competing for attention and space by taking these more visible and public and aggressive strategies. And, all of this stuff that's been bubbling away for the past few months has attracted the attention of politicians in Canberra as well. And so recently, we've seen the establishment of a federal parliamentary enquiry examining radicalisation and extremist political movements.

RUBY:

OK, so tell me more about this inquiry.

OSMAN:

So I've been reading through the submissions and there's quite a few of them from security agencies in Australia, including ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. But one that really stood out to me was the submission made by Victoria Police. And I was particularly interested in reading that submission because Victoria is where so much of what we've been talking about is happening, from the march in the Grampians to the result of the security guard at Channel Nine to the Proud Boys on the streets of Melbourne.

And so while those groups have been adopting a much more aggressive stance in Victoria, this submission from Victoria Police is actually drawing this equivalence between the far right and the far left. And it's even suggesting that it's the far left that are the ones who are feeding the growth of the right.

And this was pretty fascinating to read because it's significantly different from the stance taken by other security agencies in the country. And it suggests that perhaps if there is this disagreement on the way to approach this issue, we might not be doing everything we can or should to tackle white supremacy.

RUBY:

We'll be back after this.

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RUBY:

Os - we’re talking about the federal parliamentary enquiry which is examining extremist political movements. You’ve been looking into Victoria Police’s submission to this enquiry. Can you tell me more about what you’ve discovered?

OSMAN:

Yeah so in their submission, they equate the threat from the far left and the far right quite a few times. You know, for example, Victoria Police write at one point, it's important to acknowledge that the threat of terrorism can come from multiple sources and be inspired by a range of ideological political causes.

They say that the emerging right wing form of violent extremism interplays with left wing forms of violent extremism and in fact, says that right wing extremism doesn't exist in a vacuum and is directly influenced by what they describe as a symbiotic relationship with left wing extremism.

It's a pretty extraordinary amount of times that the Victoria Police submission goes out of its way to caveat references to right wing extremism with references to left wing extremism.

And when, you know, the kind of I guess the genesis of this enquiry is particularly looking at the risk of, violent extremist attacks and says that, you know, whilst there's been violent conflict and organised right wing extremist events and demonstrations, it also says that Victorian based left wing extremist groups are mimicking overseas movements. And it specifies Antifa.

And Antifa is a reference to this decentralised political movement that is trying to combat the far right and fascism. That's what Antifa means. It's an abbreviation for antifascist. But the term has kind of become this amorphous one used by security agencies around the world to refer to a bunch of different left wing groups and activists.

And in fact, most people have probably heard about it because Donald Trump used to love talking about Antifa.

Archival tape -- Donald Trump:

“The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left wing groups who are terrorising the innocent, destroying jobs.”

OSMAN:

He sort of threw around like this sort of bogeyman as a way to downplay the threat from the far right. You know, whenever people would say, Donald Trump, you've got to condemn the far right, who would say, sure, but what about Antifa? What about those far left violent actors as well?

Archival tape -- Donald Trump:

‘I am concerned about the rise of any group of hate. I don't like it. Any group of hate. I, whether it's white supremacy, whether it's any other kind of supremacy, whether it's Antifa. Whether it’s any group...”

OSMAN:

In fact, the whole Victoria Police submission has this kind of Trumpian logic to it.

It's this idea that you can't mention the threat from the far right without also talking about the threat from the far left.

RUBY:

So is it only Victoria Police then that are making this distinction or equivalence between right wing and left wing terrorism?

OSMAN:

In terms of the submissions we've got so far, that seems to be the case and that seems to be the case just judging by public comments made by other security agencies as well.

So the most detailed submission made so far is from ASIO, who are Australia's domestic spy agency. And ASIO says that it's concerned with the threat posed by both small groups and lone actors who are inspired to conduct a potential violent attack and says those threats are difficult to detect and they can emerge without any kind of forewarning. And that's something that has actually been saying for a couple of years since the Christchurch attacks, when an Australian far right extremist murdered more than 50 Muslims. And ASIO has previously revealed that up to 40 percent of its counter-terrorism caseload at the moment relates to right wing extremism.

So they're being very clear that there is a problem with right wing extremism. It needs to be tackled and they're spending a fair amount of resources on it. It's also said that in its submission, left wing extremism is not really a current prominent issue in Australia. The Australian Federal Police have echoed a lot of what ASIO said in its submission. And in fact, it doesn't even mention left wing extremism at all. But Victoria Police say something very, very different.

RUBY:

Hmm and so what evidence does Victoria Police have then for saying that the two are, sort of equivalent?

OSMAN:

Well, one example that the Victoria Police submission gives of apparent, you know, potentially violent left wing extremism is this example of protest movements that it say might include fringe elements, who may be inclined to engage in forms of violence, including acts of terrorism.

But it doesn’t actually specify who they are, doesn't say what those movements are or what kind of attacks they might be organising. It seems to make this kind of oblique reference to the Black Lives Matter protesters last year. Victoria Police said that left wing groups had been particularly vocal in calling for action and encouraging unlawful activity during the pandemic. So that was a reference to, I think, the fact that the Black Lives Matter protest was something that was very heavily dissuaded by Victoria Police because it was occurring during, you know, the pandemic when there were concerns about large public gatherings.

So that's the clearest example they give. And that kind of does stand in contrast with what I've heard from experts who monitor both the far left and the far right quite closely. They say there's no evidence that any left wing group in Australia is organising in the same way as the far right. And there's no evidence that they're trying to organise around violent activity.

RUBY:

Mm and I suppose that's the point here, because it seems like from what you're saying, that Victoria Police, their position is a bit of an outlier here and it doesn't match what the AFP and what ASIO is saying about extremism. So what do you think is going on here? Why is there this split and what, what might the effect of it be?

OSMAN:

I think that's a, it's a really good question. It's one that I've been thinking about a lot since seeing this disparity between the submissions and the disparity in the analysis between groups like ASIO, the AFP and Victoria Police.

And I think part of it comes down to the fact that those national security agencies have a lot of analysts and researchers and people whose job it is, to basically focus in on extremism and particularly on the extreme right.

When it comes to an organisation like Victoria Place. On the other hand, it's not clear how much time and expertise is being brought into those conversations. You know, I asked Victoria Police a range of questions about how many people they had specifically working on countering the far right, how many organisations they were working with, the kind of resources they were putting into tackling far right extremism. And they didn't respond to my specific questions. They just said that they wouldn't comment specifically on ongoing activities of far right groups, except to say that they closely monitor a range of groups.

And that, to me, raises some alarm bells.

As we saw from the incidents earlier this year, particularly that really shocking event in the Grampians, that was investigated by police and ultimately no charges were laid. When it comes to dealing with this stuff on the front line, it's often state police agencies, in the case of Victoria, it’s Victoria Police. It's their job to deal with people when they're organising protests, when they're taking part in organised training activities in the regional areas of Victoria.

And while they’re adopting the same kind of rhetoric as Donald Trump it raises questions about whether they’re going to be taking the threat of the far-right as seriously, or responding as thoroughly, as they should.

RUBY:

Os, thanks for your time.

OSMAN:

Thanks heaps, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today...

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews remains in intensive care in a Melbourne hospital after injuring himself in a fall.

The Premier has fractured a vertebra in his spine. He’s being examined further to determine whether he requires surgery.

And Christian Porter won’t be returning to work in time for next week's Parliament sitting, meaning the government is short a leader of the house as well as an Attorney General.

Porter is currently on mental health leave, after being accused - and denying - a rape allegation.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see you tomorrow.

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