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

I would make the point, in response to the member for Wentworth, that it's easy for us to rightly ascribe concern about what the Turks are doing—absolutely. But we should also remember that this situation has come about because one bloke wouldn't follow advice about the presence of his country in that part of the world and how it shouldn't pull out in the way that has happened. I've said a number of times I'm genuinely concerned about the way that the Trump administration's making decisions against taking in the advice of its allies. We cannot act unilaterally. We have to work as a group, and I think we should also call that out as well. I'll be on the record as saying I'm genuinely concerned about what the Turkish government is doing there, but we should also call out the way that the US has pulled out, and I say that as someone who is a strong believer in the US-Australia alliance. I will leave my comments at that.

I have other things to talk about, in particular something that's concerned me from last week. Last week, a bloke with a machete walked up to a place of worship in Brisbane. This is not the first time this place of worship has faced violence or some fairly extreme behaviour. The place of worship is the Holland Park mosque. Last month they had swastikas painted on their fence and they also had the words 'St Tarrant' graffitied on this place. Last week, as I said, we had a bloke with a machete walking up to this mosque. This isn't right, and it is raising a point and reinforcing a point that I've been raising with the government, that we have got to take seriously white supremacists and far-right extremism. This stuff is rearing its head in the US, and we've seen it a number of times this year where people have been the victim of some terrible behaviour that has resulted in the loss of life. This form of extremism is very serious, and I have raised my concerns that it is crossing borders. People can say, 'Well, that's just hype,' and, 'That's not true.'

For the people who reckon that this is just contained on the shores of the US, they should take the time to read Paul Maley's work in The Australian. Paul Maley has done some important work in basically tracing what the shooter at Christchurch did, the thinking that influenced this person and the way others are copying him. I have to tell you, I was chilled to the bone when I read in Paul Maley's account in The Australian. I give The Australian full credit for doing this. They looked deeply into this issue. I want to read into the Hansard this paragraph that, as I said, sent a chill through me:

Five and a half months after he attacked the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, Tarrant has become a cult hero on the sites he once trawled with semi-anonymity. A post by John Earnest, a 20-year-old from San Diego accused of graffitiing a mosque with pro-Tarrant slogans, shows how the Grafton boy has already joined the ranks of right-wing terrorists Anders Breivik and Dylann Roof, two of Tarrant’s heroes.

"For Brenton Tarrant –t/pol/" Earnest wrote on the mosque’s wall, referencing online forums known as /pol/ for "politically incorrect". Earnest would later be accused of attacking a synagogue, killing one. Like Tarrant he tried to live-stream the shooting but failed, thanks to a technical hitch.

These people are watching each other and mimicking each other, and they're are all doing it through the internet.

You then go to the Australian space and you look at what people say who are in the know, like Greg Barton, from Deakin University, who just earlier this month wrote an article entitled 'Despite Christchurch, Australia still not taking far-right extremism seriously'. He said:

Police and counter-terrorism officials have long been warning us of the rising threat of far-right violent extremism.

He also goes on to make the point:

We now need to face the reality that of 50 terrorism-related deaths in the US last year, almost all involved far-right extremism.

The point is this: I don't care if it's Islamist inspired or supremacist inspired, if it represents a threat to the Australian people it should be taken seriously. And I'm telling you now, based on the briefings I've received, we are not taking this seriously. We reckon that we're only following a few people on this issue here in this country. I have the greatest respect for what our security agencies and intelligence agencies are doing. But we also know in this day and age, with the rise of the lone wolf, we can't track these people easily. We need to take this seriously. We need to deal with it now.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19 : 30