A new parliamentary inquiry will examine the threat of extremist movements in Australia. The inquiry will specifically look at "Islamist and right-wing extremist groups".
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Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton directed the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to look at the links to people with extremist views have to international extremist organisations.
The inquiry will also look at the role of social media, end-to-end encrypted communications platforms, and the dark web in allowing extremists to communicate and organise.
The government also wants to know what steps it could be taking to disrupt and deter hate speech, including whether to regulate hate symbols and insignia.
Australia does not currently list any far-right extremist organisations on its banned terrorist organisation list, and that will also be examined by the PJCIS.
In 2019, Labor's Bill Shorten accused the government of being "riddled" with far right-wing extremists, following an incident in which far-right figure Neil Erikson claimed he met and spoke with two Western Australian members of the government, including the PJCIS chair Andrew Hastie. Hastie denied the meeting, but his fellow WA Liberal colleague Ian Goodenough said there was a "brief encounter".
Last week federal Attorney General Christian Porter told reporters he was prepared to acknowledge far right-wing extremism was a problem in Australia.
"It clearly is ... but it has become a growing focus of ASIO in recent times, which it should be," Mr Porter said.
"And that's something that wasn't quite the focus that it is now, four or six years ago. But it just goes, again, to show that this threat environment is multi factor, constantly changing, and the work of our intelligence communities is to focus on, often times, many more than one thing at once."