Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In August last year, a shooter in El Paso took 22 lives and injured 24. Six months before that in Christchurch, to our nation's profound shame, one of our own took out 51 people and injured 49. Five months before that there were plots disrupted in London, France and Spain—all motivated by right-wing extremist ideology—and the threats appear to be surging supported by decentralised extremist networks online.

Our allies are taking this seriously as evidenced by the FBI that has recently elevated racially motivated violent extremism to a national threat priority. They've appeared before the house judiciary committee to say that they've outlined a number of steps that they're taking to combat this form of extremism. They're taking it seriously, along with the Department of Homeland Security that in September last year in its new counterterrorism strategy recognised white nationalism as a major threat.

They're taking it seriously. Our allies recognise that this is a growing threat. They recognise that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are being used by these groups to justify terrorist acts both here and abroad. The person who's not taking it seriously is the home affairs minister who shouldn't have been playing word games yesterday. What he should be doing is ensuring there's a referral made to the PJCIS so the member for Canning, as that chair, can undertake a proper inquiry into this. (Time expired)

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