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Greg Barton

The worst ever terrorist attack by an Australian didn’t take place in Australia, but it was very much made in Australia.
The Australian man who shot dead 51 people and injured 40 in Christchurch in 2019 had arrived in New Zealand two years earlier, fully radicalised and consumed with hate.
He had been expressing racist hatred from his youth, and from the age of 14 was active on extremist chat forums like the notorious 4Chan.
In his 20s he travelled extensively overseas, developing his white supremacist views. He connected with like-minded individuals, such as Austrian Identitarian leader, Martin Sellner.

And while he carried out his mass shooting attack alone, he saw himself as a belonging to a global community of white supremacists. He was a vocal supporter of the notorious Australian extremist Blair Cottrell. He was very much a part of Australia’s far-right ecosystem of hate.
Last month, a group of far-right extremists made headlines with a public and childishly provocative camping trip to the Grampians.
It is easy to dismiss them as being a bunch of attention-seeking fantasists, but the danger is greater than it appears.
A PYRAMID OF HATE
Far-right extremism is the ugly face of a much larger system of toxic synergies. Former race discrimination commissioner and author of On Hate, Tim Soutphommasane, refers to a “pyramid of hate crime”:
“The history of hate and racism tells us that any kind of violence or hatred cannot be separated from banal or low levels of prejudice and discrimination … Hate speech leads to political violence if you allow it to escalate.”
Editorial | World must beware rise of the far right
In its final report released last December, the Christchurch royal commission was critical of multiple shortcomings and failures in New Zealand, but found no evidence of an intelligence failure.
While pointing out far-right extremism in New Zealand in general should have received more attention, there were few, if any, opportunities to have spotted the Australian terrorist in advance.
The commissioners concluded: “There was no plausible way that he could have been detected, except by chance.”
With no comparable investigation in Australia it remains unclear, even in hindsight, whether Australian authorities could have interrupted the vocal extremist before he become a mass murderer.

Nevertheless, the Christchurch attack certainly focused the attention of Australian authorities.
In February 2020, Asio director general Mike Burgess gave a rare briefing in which he spoke of far-right extremist groups regularly gathering in the suburbs to salute Nazi flags and promote their “hateful ideology”.
“In Australia, the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing,” he said.
As of 2020, investigating far-right extremism now takes up 30-40 per cent of Asio’s counterterrorism caseload, up from 10-15 per cent before 2016.
Although worryingly, efforts to explicitly condemn far-right extremism in federal parliament, such as a neutered Senate motion last week, continue to be stymied by partisan politicking.
WARNING SIGNS
The Christchurch shooter did not go from hateful extremism to violent extremism overnight – it only looks that way. He had been coldbloodedly preparing for and planning his terrorist attack for years.
The warning signs were there in his hateful social media posts, but they were lost in a cacophony of extremist noise.
It is possible that, with more attention, his deadly trajectory could have been identified and interrupted. But even if that is not specifically the case, it is clear in general that limiting space for hateful extremism reduces the likelihood of violent extremism.
In the United States, far-right extremism has accounted for the vast majority of terrorist attacks over the past decade. This points to what happens when the ecosystem of white supremacist hate is allowed to flourish unchecked.

In Australia, like the US, violent extremism makes enormous demands on law enforcement resources. But hateful extremism is not, for the most part, illegal. Violent extremism represents but the tip of the iceberg.
As we saw recently in Victoria, neo-Nazis are free to parade through national parks, burning crosses and yelling things like “heil Hitler” and “Ku Klux Klan” in public places, certain of securing media attention and the infamy they desperately seek.
And while fascists were prancing around the Grampians, supporters of the Proud Boys – one of the far-right militia behind the storming of the US Capitol – were marching in Melbourne.
Canada has just moved to declare The Proud Boys a terrorist group. It would help if we followed suit.

DEADLY INSPIRATION
It is true most of these neo-Nazi bullies, moving in packs and hiding behind balaclavas, will not cross the line and become violent extremists.
But the danger is they will inspire lone actors to launch violent attacks in the toxic-narcissistic hope of going from “zero to hero”, competing for attention with avidly consumed manifestos, live-streamed bodycam footage, and a sick obsession with “body counts”.
The details of far-right extremism vary. But running through its cocktail of toxic nationalism, nativism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant, misogynist propaganda and fascism is a river of hate.
Swirling around the edges of this vast ecosystem is a discourse of racism and bigotry, poisoning political rhetoric and public culture from organised sport to media comment. And, like a killer rip at the beach, powerful undercurrents of conspiracy theory movements like QAnon drag otherwise ordinary citizens at the edges into dark places with frightening force and swiftness.
For the most part, this results in more noise than fury. But both the violent storming of the US Capitol and the gunning-down of 91 worshippers in Christchurch are reminders of where this hate can lead.

The time has come to deal with hateful extremism before it manifests as violent extremism.
Australia needs to constrain the space available for the ecosystem of hate to poison public spaces and discourse. This requires both tighter legal constraints on hate speech and the incitement of hatred and investment in, and listening to and acknowledging, victims of hate.
There is also a pressing need for a properly resourced and maintained open registry of hate crimes and incidents, rather than the shambolic, haphazard, disconnected, array of incomplete collections that currently exist.
Four out of five organisations tackling hate in Australia are non-government and largely focus on raising awareness. Police forces are tasked with addressing hate crime, but they need to be empowered to do this more thoroughly, with clearer guidelines and resources.


The Christchurch royal commission points the way to what is required in Australia. This includes police revising the way they record complaints, “to capture systematically hate-motivations for offending and train frontline staff … [to] identify potential hate crimes when they perceive that an offence is hate-motivated”.
It also recommends police to better understand the perceptions of victims and witnesses and to record “hate-motivations”.
We also need to recognise the many significant incidents and groups that do not reach the threshold of criminality. There is much to be gained from carefully recording all incidents even if prosecution is unlikely – only 21 people have ever been convicted of hate crimes in Australia.
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Listening to victims is also important, not just for their sake but so we have more complete evidence to guide us.
Doing this does not guarantee the next violent extremist attack could be stopped. But it would go a long way to making it less likely.
At the same time, a society with less space for hateful extremism would a healthier and happier one for all, whether at the football, taking the train, using social media or picnicking in a national park.
Greg Barton is chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. This article first appeared in The Conversation.


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To tackle far-right extremism, Australia needs to clamp down on the ecosystem of hate

Australian far-right extremist Blair Cottrell talks to supporters at a nationalist rally in Melbourne in January 2019. Photo: EPA

In this photo supplied by the New Zealand government, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, right, meets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during the national remembrance service for the victims of the March 15 mosques terrorist attack in Hagley Park, Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 29, 2019. (Mark Tantrum/New Zealand Government via AP)

Candles are placed to commemorate victims of Friday's shooting, outside the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Monday, March 18, 2019. Three days after Friday's attack, New Zealand's deadliest shooting in modern history, relatives were anxiously waiting for word on when they can bury their loved ones. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Flowers are seen on the graves of the Christchurch's terror attack victims at the Memorial Park Cemetery on the first day of the four-day of Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant's sentencing hearing in Christchurch on August 24, 2020. - Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 Muslims in last year's New Zealand mosques shooting, showed no emotion as his sentencing hearing opened with horrific details of an atrocity prosecutors said was meticulously planned to inflict maximum casualties. (Photo by Sanka VIDANAGAMA / AFP)

epa07263281 Mounted police officers keep protesters apart on the St Kilda foreshore in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 05 January 2019. Scores of police officers descended on Melbourne's St Kilda beach searching for weapons and to separate nationalists from anti-racism demonstrators gathering at the popular spot. EPA-EFE/DAVID CROSLING AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY

FILE PHOTO: A supporter of President Donald Trump holds an U.S. flag with a reference to QAnon during a Trump 2020 Labor Day cruise rally in honor of Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron J. Danielson, who was shot dead in Portland, Oregon, after street clashes between supporters of President Donald Trump and counter-demonstrators, in Oregon city, Oregon, U.S. September 7, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Far right vs Islamists: a vicious circle of extremism in Southeast Asia?

A Sri Lankan soldier guards St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, a week after a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka in 2019. Photo: AFP

Kumar Ramakrishna, Associate Dean and Head of International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Photo: Handout

Noor Huda Ismail, a documentary film-maker on terrorism and visiting fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. Photo: Handout

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2002, file photo, an Australian police officer stands near the ruins of the Sari Club, background, which was flattened by a bomb attack in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. The Indonesian government is bringing together dozens of convicted Islamic militants and survivors of attacks in what it hopes will be an important step in combating radicalism and fostering reconciliation. The three days of meetings began Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

A soldier stands guard outside the Grand Mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Negombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019,

China-Australia relations: Beijing warns overseas students in Australia, saying ‘vicious incidents’ threaten their safety

China’s Ministry of Education has again warned overseas students of studying in Australia, citing “vicious incidents”, including attacks on people of Asian descent. Photo: Reuters

China’s Ministry of Education has again warned overseas students of studying in Australia, citing “vicious incidents”, including attacks on people of Asian descent. Photo: AFP

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A police officer pictured at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch on March 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Pedestrians wait to cross the street along the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore on February 21, 2018. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

FILE PHOTO: Singapore's Law Minister K. Shanmugam speaks to Reuters in Singapore July 31, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Picture No. 24-CHP-Tarrant 2 Person shown in image: Brenton Tarrant Subject :Brenton Tarrant, 29, appears in the Christchurch High Court. Date created: March 24, 2020 Country, City, State: Christchurch, New Zealand More details: Brenton Tarrant, 29, appears in the Christchurch High Court for sentencing. He is charged with 51 counts of murder, 40 attempted murder and one charge of terrorism following the March 2019 attacks on two Christchurch mosques. Photographer: NA Source: Fairfax

A Singaporean boy bought a tactical vest as part of a plan to attack Muslims at two mosques. Photo: Handout

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The Christchurch shooting led to 51 deaths. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 23, 2019, Members of the local Muslim community enter the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, after it was reopened following a massacre of worshippers in the New Zealand city. - The New Zealand mosque massacre in which a white supremacist slaughtered 51 people is to be turned into a movie called "Hello Brother", its producer told media at Cannes on May 15, 2019. The feature film, which follows a family of refugees that flees Afghanistan for the safety of Christchurch only to get caught up in the carnage, is being made by Egyptian producer Moez Masoud, he told Variety magazine (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

FILE - In this March 19, 2019, file photo, mourners pray near the Linwood mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. More than 60 survivors and family members will confront the New Zealand mosque gunman during the four-day sentencing starting Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. Twenty-nine-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant has pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism in the worst atrocity in the nation's modern history.(AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)

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In Australia, like the US, violent extremism makes enormous demands on law enforcement resources. But hateful extremism is not, for the most part, illegal
Authorities need to constrain the space available for this hate to poison public spaces and discourse before it manifests as violence, says Greg Barton



Authorities need to clamp down on hate speech and incitement of hatred. Don’t forget, the worst ever terrorist attack by an Australian took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, but it was very much made in Australia, says Greg Barton.


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