Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that at 8.30 today 25 proposals were received. In accordance with standing order 75, the question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot. As a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter, dated 3 February, has been received from Senator Lines:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to 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.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Quite often I rise in this place and the person sitting in your spot, Madam Acting Deputy President, mistakenly refers to me as Senator Carr. Typically in response to that I say, 'I'm not insulted by that because I do have a high regard for Senator Carr and I've learned a lot from Senator Carr from serving with him on a number of committees established in this place.' However, today, I must say I'm completely at odds with his characterisation of my party.

I think the most disappointing thing about this resolution—and I note that it is not Senator Carr's resolution; it comes from Senator Lines—is in part 2 where it refers to:

… the spread of far-right extremism and destructive conspiracy theories both within their own party and in the broader community.

Those are the words that really disappoint me. I believe, if we are to be successful in defeating extremism in this country, those of us who consider anti-Semitism, fascism and extremism of all types to be vile and unacceptable in our society need to come together. We should seek in our rhetoric in this place to bring each other together rather than to throw stones at each other.

I am going to talk about anti-Semitism in this context. I know Senator Carr is a passionate opponent of anti-Semitism in all of its forms in our community. I want to use that particular vile type of extremism as an example to demonstrate that extremism is not wholly the domain of the far Right. It occurs in the Left as well. If people coming into this place want to be sanctimonious and throw stones at this side of the chamber, they better be prepared to hear the sound of shattering glass.

Let me quote to you from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry's 2018 report on anti-Semitism in Australia. I am not going to specifically name the members of the Left who are referred to in this report. I am not going to refer to the members of the Left. I am not going to make it personal. I am just going to quote from a number of case studies. The first one was a New South Wales Labor upper house MP and opposition whip at the time of this report. He refused entry to a leader of the New South Wales Jewish community at the launch of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee on 13 August 2013. The Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee itself did not invite any representatives of the Jewish community to the launch, but representatives from other ethnic communities and organisations were invited. More than 10 other ethnic community organisations expressed outrage at the discrimination and exclusion of the Jewish leadership and community. That is example No. 1 from the Left, Senator Carr.

I now refer to example No. 2—again, from the Left. This was a Labor member of parliament between the years 2007 and 2016. Senator Carr may well be able to identify them, I suspect, as may Senator Sterle. This person was the Labor candidate for the WA seat of Curtin in the 2019 federal election, before they had to withdraw their candidacy. Let me quote to you the vile statement, the vile misinformation, expressed by this person—a candidate for the federal Labor Party:

One case I remember vividly, a pregnant refugee woman was ordered at a checkpoint in Gaza to drink a bottle of bleach.

It burnt out all her throat and insides. Fortunately her baby was saved.

Another refugee was forced to put her baby through the X-ray machine.

It's a vile lie and it's misrepresentation and misinformation from an endorsed Labor candidate who, thankfully, did not pursue her nomination and did not stand for election. In response to this misinformation, this vile information from the Left, a journalist by the name of James Campbell responded:

Considering the long history of slanders of the Jewish people, it's really quite an achievement to be an innovator.

After all, this is a people that has been accused over the centuries of sacrificing Christian children to obtain blood for Passover bread and nursing a plan for global domination.

Let's go to example No. 3: a Labor candidate in the Northern Territory at the last election, who put up on Facebook something entitled 'Rothschild Zionism'. The Labor Senate candidate for the Northern Territory posted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Facebook. These came to light during the election campaign. He posted an image in October 2016 of Jacob Rothschild. Both items were in support of David Icke—an absolutely vile human being—and his conspiracy theory that the Rothschild family secretly run the world by controlling the media, governments and global finance. Icke is also known for his anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that the world is run by a secret society of Jewish shape-shifting lizards. This was an endorsed Labor candidate at the last federal election, who was forced to resign as a Labor candidate in April 2019. And, before Senator Faruqi contributes to this debate, let me say that I've got examples of Greens candidates and Greens members of parliament who also appear in these reports.

A person I greatly admire in relation to combating anti-Semitism is a lady by the name of Deborah Lipstadt. She was the person who took that vile Holocaust denier David Irving to court and won. She won, when he brought a defamation case. Let me quote from her great book, which I recommend to all those people in this chamber. It's called Antisemitism: Here and Now. On page 67, she says:

I'll close by referring to a comment I made at the outset of this exchange, when I expressed the hope that my answers would leave both those on the right and the left—

on the Right and the Left—

discomforted. That discomfort should be caused by an acknowledgment on everyone's part that extremism and antisemitism are found not only among people on the other side of the political spectrum. As long as we are blind to it in our midst, our fight against it will be futile.

That is the great Deborah Lipstadt, from her book Antisemitism: Here and Now.

Finally, I quote from the 2020 report of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Page 101 of their report says:

There is a distinct overlap between sections of the far Right and far Left when it comes to Jews and/or Israel. Nazi-style Jew-hating comments have frequently been posted on anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian social media pages of ostensibly left-wing organisations, and elicit supportive posted comments.

So it greatly concerns me that in this place there are those who seek to make short-term political issues out of these matters. We must unite as a community, as a country, against vile extremism, whether it's from the Left or the Right. This should not be a political matter in this chamber. We should unite as a country and provide a united front and support for all groups in our society, whether they're Indigenous Australians, people who are multigeneration Australians, or our newest migrants. Certainly my community in Queensland expects me to do that, and I request them to judge my performance in this regard on what I say in this place every single day I have the honour of serving here.

As our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said at his National Press Club address on Monday, I know Australia is the most successful multicultural country in the world. One of the reasons for that is people like Senator Carr, who will get up and speak passionately against anti-Semitism. One of the reasons for that is people like Ron Boswell, from my own state of Queensland, who for many years spoke out against the far Right. We need to be united against extremism in our country.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the matter of urgency before the chamber. As senators would know, this is an issue that is front of my mind as the Greens spokesperson for antiracism and as the only Muslim senator in this place.

First, I think the most critical aspect of this urgency motion, which I thank Senator Lines for bringing on, relates to the Prime Minister and Mr Dutton taking action to combat far Right extremism within their own party. In my first speech to the Senate, back in August 2018, I said:

The existence of racism, sexism and other discrimination is not new, but what has changed is its legitimisation, normalisation and encouragement in the media and in politics. Political leaders, in addition to their old habit of racist dog-whistling, are now comfortable outright fanning the flames of racial conflict.

Reflecting on those words 2½ years later, it deeply disturbs me how this process of normalisation I spoke about has not reversed or corrected itself but has in fact worsened. Far Right politics are more mainstream than ever. The government has shown zero interest in dealing with this existential threat to our diverse community. It was good to see significant pressure placed on the Prime Minister over the last couple of days to condemn and distance himself from the dangerous COVID conspiracy theorising of the member for Hughes, Craig Kelly, but similar pressure should also be put on him to condemn the numerous government MPs who have made a habit of peddling far Right hate politics. There is no excuse for the toxic hate that is being spread. It is dangerous. It kills people. It harms communities.

Just before parliament rose last year, I asked questions and spoke in this chamber about the Christchurch mosque attacks royal commission report, which had just been released in Aotearoa New Zealand. During my contributions, in which I spoke specifically about how the terrorist who killed 51 Muslims was found to have held an extreme right-wing Islamophobic ideology, I said, 'Any denial or obfuscation of this simple fact is an insult to the targets.' During my remarks, multiple government senators shouted back at me, including—I remember this very distinctly—'He was a Communist,' someone said. This really rattled me. If your response to the devastating murder of 51 innocent people is to default to a conspiratorial deflection about the terrorist being anything but a fascist, then we may as well pack up, give up and head home. This isn't theoretical for us. This isn't a meaningless political game. These are our lives. When you don't take this seriously, when you dismiss it with nonsensical, offensive deflections, the message it sends to me and other Muslims is this: 'We don't care about you. We don't care about your community. We choose to either stay in twisted denial or are actively sympathetic to far Right politics.'

When I called out the Deputy Prime Minister last month for, shamefully, comparing the white supremacist uprising at the US capitol with the Black Lives Matter protests and his use of the far-Right slogan 'All lives matter', my office was again bombarded with messages of hate, including over social media and email and via multiple very toxic and vile phone calls. We know why Mr McCormack used the slogan and made that comparison. He reckons there's a constituency out there for him. He thinks he can use it to electoral advantage. This is a sign of complete moral bankruptcy. You lot over there, together with your Prime Minister, won't say a word to condemn him or to pull him up because you are salivating after those voters that the far-Right Pauline Hanson's One Nation party has taken away from you. Shame on you!

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There can be no doubt that, in our country, far-Right extremism is a real and growing problem. There are some out there who want to pretend that this is just an irrelevancy, that it's really not an issue and that people are silly to be getting upset about it, but it is a real and growing problem. As Senator Faruqi said, an Australian was, unfortunately, the perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, not too long ago. We see Neo-Nazi rallies and gatherings in our own country all too often and with growing crowds, increasingly organised over social media. As Senator Carr stated, ASIO, in evidence to Senate estimates committees, has advised that about 40 per cent of their work now is involved in dealing with far-Right extremism, and that rate is growing.

This growth of far-Right extremism, very sadly, is heavily targeted at some of the most vulnerable communities in our country: our First Nations people, migrants, Muslims—anyone who doesn't fit a certain stereotype propagated by these far-Right groups. And, of course, while those vulnerable groups bear the brunt of this far-Right extremism, in a way that I think many people can't possibly understand if they haven't experienced it themselves, this real and growing form of extremism in our country is a risk to all of us. It is a genuine risk to lives and it is a risk to Australia's values, our support for democracy, our support for a fair go for everyone in our country and our support for making sure that everyone is looked after in our country. That's why we need to take this seriously. That's why all of us in this parliament, regardless of our party and regardless of where we come from, need to treat this seriously and tackle it. It is extremely disappointing that we see over and over again this government not taking this risk seriously.

For some time now, we've seen what I've described as 'rogue' backbenchers of this government—in particular, people like Mr Kelly and Mr Christensen—flirting day and night with extreme Right groups and pushing their views, usually sourced from the United States right-wing groups, into the Australian population through their heavily subscribed social media channels. And, over and over again, we have seen the Prime Minister and other senior ministers of this government fail to take action and rein them in. It's even worse when it reaches the level of the Deputy Prime Minister of this country, who recently used—not just echoed, but used—an infamous far-Right slogan from the United States: 'All lives matter'. He tried to treat it as a joke. He tried to say it wasn't serious. He tried to say it was just a statement of the obvious. But he very well knows that, as does every member of this government, that's a far Right slogan used for a reason: to enrage and stir up that form of extremism that we are seeing increasingly in the US and in our own country. It is a problem that, from backbenchers to the second highest office in the land, we are seeing members of this government propagate these views and support them, or, at the very least, fail to rein them in.

The response that is usually given, and probably will be given in this debate, when members of the opposition and others point out the seriousness of this is that everyone has got a right to an opinion and to free speech and we should defend it. Well, the members opposite need to remember that there has never, in this country, been an unrestricted right to free speech. With speech, comes responsibility. We have always had limitations on free speech, whether it be defamation laws, whether it be about restricting people from spreading terrorist ideology or whether it be about companies not being able to mislead consumers. With speech comes responsibility, and it's about time this government took that seriously and took the growing risk of far Right extremism seriously too.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me be incredibly clear here: all forms of hatred and division are unacceptable whatever the ideology. We all should be proud that Australia is one of the, if not the most, successful multicultural countries in the world. We're proud to welcome people from all backgrounds. We give everyone a fair go, regardless of where they're from. As Australians, and as a government, when racism does occur, we call it out. We condemn it. The Morrison government is absolutely committed to protecting our nation from all threats, whether they be from the extreme Right or the extreme Left. We make no distinction where there are threats to the Australian community. Keeping Australians safe is our government's highest priority, be it through COVID or terrorist threats.

Our laws and arrangements are agnostic. We focus on the threat and criminality, not the motivation or ideology. In fact, just last December the Minister for Home Affairs referred an inquiry to the PJCIS into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia. In doing so, the minister has asked the committee to give particular consideration to the motivations and capacity for violence of extremist groups, including far Right extremist groups, and to consider changes that could assist the Commonwealth's terrorist organisation listing laws to ensure that they provide a barrier to those who may seek to promote an ideological extreme in Australia. But the committee will look further than that. They've also been tasked with inquiring into the influence of extremist groups that fall short of the legislative thresholds for proscription terrorist organisations and any steps that can be taken to address hate speech. The previous speaker, Senator Watt, might want to stay for this, because I agree that free speech does not mean speech is free from consequence. I don't think anyone denies that. The committee will inquire into thresholds to regulate the use of symbols and insignia associated with terrorism and extremism. The committee is due to report by 30 April this year. Our commitment to properly fund the fight against extremism is further proof of our total lack of tolerance for any and all forms of extremism. This budget includes: $63 million of social cohesion measures to bring Australians together; $37.3 million to promote Australian values, identity and social cohesion and counter malign information online; $17.7 million to enhance engagement with multicultural communities; and $7.9 million to establish a research program to inform initiatives to strengthen social cohesion.

In the last budget, the government provided an additional $571.4 million over five years to security agencies to keep Australians safe. ASIO's funding is at the highest level it's ever been in its more than 70 years of history, and the AFP has received an additional $300 million over four years to enhance its ability to respond to emerging threats. The Department of Home Affairs has had more than 10,000 engagements with key multicultural groups, which is a 51.9 per cent increase nationally.

Throughout this pandemic the Morrison government has ensured that ads have been placed in selected media outlets—online, in print and on radio—reinforcing our clear position that racism is unacceptable. We've translated those into 16 languages, with support online in 63 languages other than English. We know our values. I think all of us in this place try to espouse those values, values that respect freedom and dignity of the individual; freedom of religion; commitment to the rule of law, which means that all people are subject to the law and should obey it; and our parliamentary democracy, whereby our laws are determined by parliaments elected by the people—those laws being paramount and overriding any other inconsistent religious or secular laws. Australia is truly the greatest multicultural country in the world.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In February last year the director-general of ASIO did not mince his words. He said that in Australia the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing. He said:

In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.

He said that 'these groups are more organised and security conscious than in previous years'. What will it take for the government to take the threat as seriously as the director-general of ASIO does?

Many Australians have responded to the stress and anxiety of the global pandemic by trying to find an explanation other than science. Rich veins of misinformation have powered transnational conspiracy theories such as QAnon, the antivaccination movement, 5G protesters and the antilockdown movement. These movements are a vector of radicalisation. They share a direct, deliberate connection with the world view of the far Right—racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. Umberto Echo said, 'At the root of fascist psychology lies an obsession with conspiracies'. This has always been the history of fascism. It is a political movement that takes vulnerable people and makes them capable of violence.

In recent days attention has been paid to Mr Kelly and his role in promoting exactly these kinds of conspiracies. In addition, the member for Dawson has a number of deliberate and non-accidental links to far-Right extremism. Famously he spoke at a Reclaim Australia rally in Mackay in 2015. In 2017 Mr Christensen appeared on a podcast called The Convict Report produced by a white nationalist group called The Dingoes. Mr Christensen wasn't concerned about the podcast's history of extraordinarily anti-Semitic and racist propaganda. At the time he told BuzzFeed: 'I know these Dingo guys are a bit wild, so I have to say I don't agree with all their views.' Yet he endorsed their anti-Semitism by saying:

That GetUp!, we all know it's George Soros-funded. It's in the whole big worldwide movement of leftist organisations.

Anti-Semitism deserves special condemnation. Invoking Soros, like the Rocthchilds, is an old tactic of fascists and anti-Semites—a code for blaming Jews for the problems of ordinary people. We've seen the historical consequences of these beliefs. They must be condemned. They must be stamped out.

In December of that year one of the hosts of that podcast, Clifford Jennings, joined the New South Wales National Party. He would go on to lead the efforts by white supremacist groups to infiltrate the National Party, recruiting from an explicitly fascist Facebook group called The New Guard. Mr Jennings attempted to seek senior positions in the New South Wales branch of the Young Nationals.

Within a year of Christensen appearing on a far-Right podcast, the same far-Right figures were active members of his political party. Mr Christensen has maintained connections to extreme right-wing media. In September of this year, he appeared on a 90-minute stream with far-Right YouTuber Dia Beltran, a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist who also interviews Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson and—how could we forget?—Fraser 'It's alright to be white' Anning. He said on that show, 'I know someone who was very unfairly maligned in the Young Nationals when all of that happened, and that person was in no way, shape or form a Nazi.' Then he went on to say, 'There was a claim that these people were Neo-Nazis, and I can tell you it was a lot of rubbish.' He also told Beltran: 'You'd make a great member of parliament. You might just have to scrub some of the YouTube interviews that you've done.' In December, Christensen appeared on another alt-Right podcast, the WilmsFront podcast, on The Unshackled network. The guy who hosts that also hosts other absolutely anti-Semitic, racist shows.

So, now that Mr Christensen is campaigning for free speech to be protected on social media platforms, it's worth asking whose speech he actually wants to protect. Is it Avi Yemini, who once described himself as 'the world's proudest Jewish Nazi', is it the New Guard Facebook group, or is it the number of alt-Right meme pages that Mr Christensen himself follows on his personal Facebook page? Last year, Gizmodo published a full list of Facebook pages followed by Mr Christensen. These include pages entitled Reject Degeneracy, Embrace Tradition and Many Enemies, Much Honour—which is a Mussolini quote. He also follows Art Of The True Right, The Occidental Sentinel and The New Nationalist. These pages publish anti-Semitic and fascist propaganda, and it appears that they are supported by Mr Christensen. They deserve, and he deserves, the condemnation of this parliament.

The National Party has a particular responsibility in this area. Radicalisation can occur anywhere, but the man who committed the Christchurch massacre grew up in Grafton in northern New South Wales and he was radicalised in Grafton, reading the same fascist social media pages as Mr Christensen. New Zealand's royal commission into the Christchurch massacre noted that he would likely have performed this attack in Australia if not for our stringent gun laws. In March last year, a 23-year-old man was arrested in Nowra and charged with preparing or planning terrorist attacks. He was attempting to build an IED. In December, an 18-year-old man was arrested in Albury on terrorism related charges. He had expressed Neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic beliefs on social media and wanted to be involved in a mass-casualty event. In January this year, about 30 Neo-Nazis celebrated Australia Day in Victoria's Grampian mountains. They terrorised decent Australians in a country town, sang white power chants, posted stickers around town and even burned a cross. The people who claim to represent regional Australia have a responsibility to act and be clear, not to play footsies with fascists or minimise the danger. The far Right is a threat to Australian democracy, just as it is to American democracy.

I know that there are members and senators on the other side who take these threats and these issues just as seriously. They deserve leadership that takes them seriously as well. The Liberal Party must act on Mr Kelly. The National Party must act on Mr Christensen. The Prime Minister must act on both. Mr Christensen was always a disgrace. His association with far Right figures is a threat to public safety, promotes radicalisation, damages our social fabric and damages our global reputation. The Prime Minister must unequivocally condemn Mr Kelly for his advocacy of far Right conspiracy theories which make Australia less safe and undermine the campaign to protect us from COVID-19. He must condemn Mr Christensen for his support for fascist, racist and anti-Semitic ideas. He must remove Mr Christensen from his leadership role as chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth. He is a disgrace—a figure of fun for some—but his decline from disgrace to dangerous means he should be condemned by the parliament. He should be disavowed by the Prime Minister and disendorsed by the Queensland LNP.

I have listened carefully to the responses of people on the other side, in the government. We should not make the mistake of false equivalences. We should not make the mistake of equivocating the Right of Australian politics with the far Right. That is an incorrect thing to do and I will never do it. But what that requires on their side is leadership. It requires acting on extremists. It requires dealing with them. It requires providing leadership to young people and vulnerable people, that the claptrap and the dangerous conspiracy theories that are propagated by these people, including Mr Christensen and Mr Kelly, should be condemned loudly and everywhere by everybody in the government, including the Prime Minister, in order to stop radicalisation and to stop the rise of the far Right.

David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just wish that those opposite would pay as much attention to the writing of their motions, in their grammar and how they're constructed, as the attention they pay to those in the other place. I would draw the chamber's attention to the nonsensical nature of this motion from Senator Lines. In reading it when I was asked to speak on it, I was shaking my head—in particular, about part B, which just doesn't seem to make any sense. Is Senator Lines meaning that the Morrison government is taking action? Does she mean we are not? I am completely unsure from her motion.

But here we are and we'll talk on it anyway. It's far too often that the Labor Party come into this chamber with nonsensical motions. Each time they do it it just highlights the issues the Labor Party have faced since the Hawke and Keating governments. Clearly, they cannot clarify their own position. What do those opposite stand for? I really struggle to know. There is a reason that the Labor Party is stuck in opposition, and this motion is a clear example of that problem. They can't articulate a message and they can't get the basics right. Once you start getting the basics right then maybe you can start thinking about the bigger picture, like who your leader is. But until then I suggest they stop thinking and talking about themselves and who is going to be the next Leader of the Opposition. And they should focus on reading their motions before they table them for debate.

For those Australians listening and watching today's debate, unsure of what that motion is trying to say, I'll try to clarify that for you. The fact is that the Morrison government is taking action to combat the spread of far-Right extremism and destructive conspiracy theories. I do think it is fair and right that I speak on this motion today as multiculturalism is an area that I'm deeply involved with and passionate about. Over the past 18 months, since I've been in this place, I've sought to create closer ties across all communities in Australia, and in particular with many multicultural communities. I've done this through hosting a quarterly roundtable with the Consular Court in Victoria to hear of the problems the diaspora is facing and the challenges that they've had, especially during COVID, and what we as a government can do to assist.

At the start of the COVID pandemic there were experiences of racism in my home state, and I used this place to call out that racism and to encourage greater dialogue. During a speech I gave in here, I said:

It troubles me that I could spend this entire time listing instances of racism that have occurred in my home state over the past month. My heart breaks when I put myself in the shoes of those facing these attacks, to imagine what they would be feeling and what they are going through. It is just unfathomable to me, yet it has become the reality for some.

On the back of that speech, I wrote, and had published, opinion pieces in major newspapers in Singapore and Malaysia. I worked closely with some of the consuls general in Victoria, particularly those of China, Malaysia and Indonesia, about the racism that was experienced.

But we see extremism in many, many forms. And I hope it is accepted by this place that over the past 18 month or so that I've been in the Senate I've shown my commitment to calling out bigotry, vilification and extremism wherever I see it. But extremism isn't just an issue when it comes to the right wing of politics and it isn't just an issue when it comes to the left wing. Extremism is dangerous in all its forms. In one of the committees I was on, we were calling out the danger of the extremism of the animal welfare sector. So, it has many, many forms.

More troublingly, extremism erodes our public social cohesion. In November last year the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs—that's the portfolio that Minister Dutton, named in the motion, is the minister for—Michael Pezzullo, gave a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia titled 'On unity: the elements of social cohesion'. I would recommend to all my colleagues in this place that they take the time to read, watch or listen to that speech. It is incredibly powerful stuff. In the speech the secretary outlines how much Australia is actually a socially cohesive nation and community. He argues that throughout 2020 as a nation we showed this cohesion through our actions, through the bushfires and through the pandemic. I think everyone in here would agree with me that that's actually what happened.

Unfortunately, there are people who want to divide us, separate us and tell us that extremism, whether from the Right or from the Left, is growing substantively, that as a community we are less cohesive and more divided than ever before. And I couldn't disagree more with this. As Mr Pezzullo said in his speech,

Today, societies generally are more socially cohesive and economically stable as compared with Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Then we saw fracturing at the heart of European civilisation, and the rise of Fascism and Nazism. The latter was the most monstrous tyranny that has ever darkened this world. It abused the notion of a ‘united’ Germany, and twisted it into an evil dictatorship which generated its malign power from oppression at large, and the specific, targeted brutalisation of fellow Germans and others who in the most horrendous case of 'the Final Solution' were deemed not to be human – and fit only for the unspeakable horror of the gas chambers. We must never forget. We are not today remotely close to that state of affairs.

And as the partner of a Jewish woman, I know and live with the history of what extremism can do to a society—that is, real division, real breakdown of social cohesiveness.

This does not mean that we don't take increases in extremism seriously. We do. Just this week Mr Pezzullo, if I can quote him again, warned that the threat posed by violent right-wing extremists is no different to that posed by Islamic terrorists. Those opposite have correctly said that right-wing extremism is on the rise. There is no doubt. But we do have to remember that this is starting from a very, very low base. That does not mean, however, that we do not investigate, track and try to break up any extremist groups before they do harm. We should also not overexaggerate the risks it would cause unneeded harm to ourselves. The Morrison government is absolutely committed to protecting our nation from all threats, and over the years we've shown our commitment to doing just that. As a government we make no distinction in targeting threats to the Australian community. Our laws are agnostic. They focus on threat and criminality irrespective of motivation or ideology. Australians from all walks of life should have confidence that Australia's counterterrorism arrangements are working well to protect the community from all violent extremism.

To ensure this, the Morrison government in the 2019-20 budget provided an additional $571 million over five years to our security agencies to keep Australians safe. Funding for ASIO is the highest it's been in its more than 70-year history, and the AFP has received an additional $300 million over four years to enhance its ability to respond to emerging threats. These are not just words; instead this is real action and real support from the Morrison government enabling our security agencies to continue to do the fantastic job they're doing in protecting us. I just want to take a moment to thank all the hardworking and dedicated members of our national security agencies. You all do exceptional work.

There is no doubt we are a lucky country, but that doesn't just come by chance. It comes from our continued hard work, our shared values and our democratic stability. We are the greatest multicultural society in the world and we should be proud of that. All people in Australia, whether you arrived here recently or your family have walked these lands since time immemorial, should never have to accept aggressive acts towards them, and I utterly condemn all forms of extremism and racism behaviours against people in Australia. All Australians are currently facing the common challenge of COVID-19 and only together can we get through that.

Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion, and I thank Senator Lines for putting it before this chamber. It's very disturbing to hear the comments that people are making in this chamber. This is absolutely critical right now in this country because it is getting worse, and there is deep division in this country where we are meant to be uniting—as people who represent our constituents and the people of Australia. It's deeply saddening that we have a government who is so connected to the far Right, to the fascists, to the Nazis. It's deeply disturbing.

I have been on the receiving end of these racists, these violent perpetrators that don't like anybody else but themselves and the whiteness that they bring. When I was 14 and I started my first job, I rocked up to work one day and there was 'coon' written across the window, in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. When I had my first child, in Lakes Entrance, the skate park had a sign with graffiti across it saying 'all coons must die'. We had the KKK in Paynesville, in Victoria. The far Right are a threat to everybody in this country. They represent hate, they represent violence and they don't want to unite this country. They're not part of this country's identity, nor should they be. I'm just so surprised that so many people on the other side—and we're going to have the other senator come up after me and blurt out the racist rhetoric that they always do, but it's got to stop. We have children watching. Our children have to be safe. There are children being beaten up in the schoolyards because of racism. Children are not born racist; they learn it. They're learning it in their homes and they're learning it from their government. When are we going to truly mature as a nation? When? Stop racism because racism kills people in this country.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an urgency motion by Senator Lines. I'm proud to be speaking for the overwhelming majority of Australians who know that being an Australian means being part of probably the greatest democracy of the world. But one of the ugliest challenges that's raised its head in recent years is the hypocrisy, lies and rewriting of reality by extremists from the Left—extremists who seek to rewrite our history, lie about our present, deceive our youth and go to any length, it seems, to shame our great democracy.

I've said many times in this place that I am against all extremism. I oppose right-wing extremists and I oppose left-wing extremists. This motion before us reflects some of the worst thinking of left-wing extremism. Senator Lines ignores 200 years of nation building and ignores the spirit that bonds us and instead recreates reality to drive a stake of division into the heart of our nation and our people by preaching white privilege. Like so many left-wing extremists, she denies truth for political gain and notoriety.

There can be a few more stunning examples of hypocrisy than the bitter, vitriolic attack by the senator against Australia Day in an ad she paid for on social media recently. Senator Lines calls for Australia Day to be a day of mourning. She could not possibly be more out of step with the overwhelming majority of Australians. If Senator Lines really believes in white privilege, she'll obviously be happy to immediately hand over her position as Deputy President to Senator Dodson or Senator McCarthy. Senator Lines's vitriol does Indigenous Australians no service at all. She hides behind a shameful cloak of shallowness, hypocrisy and lies that typifies the worst elements of extremism on both sides. It ignores any truth, tolerates no discussion or debate, is dismissive of reason and deserves the widest condemnation from all sides. I will not be supporting this motion.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Lines be agreed to.