AMAN supports the House of Representatives Motion that will be moved by Labor today to refer an inquiry on Right Wing Extremism to the Parliament Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and calls on the Government to support it to make this a bipartisan effort that is above politics.
Central to Right Wing Extremism is the dehumanisation of groups such as Muslims, Jews and Immigrants, but it can lead unpredictably and swiftly towards violence targeting any Australian group or institution.[1]
Yesterday Prime Minister Ardern released the 800 page report by the New Zealand Royal Commission into the Christchurch massacre.
Since the Christchurch massacre, we have been calling on the Australian Government to engage with civil society on addressing the rising threat of Right Wing Extremism, as we are at the coalface of monitoring harms online.
To this day, Facebook and Twitter, are painfully reluctant to act on dangerous hate organisations that are weaponizing their platforms to amplify extreme conspiracy theories about Muslims and other targeted communities.
This is despite the existence of vilification laws in Australia, that aren’t being respected or applied as a standard. Unfortunately digital platforms are acting as if this is the United States.
Now is the time for bipartisan leadership and an inclusive national effort to deal with the underlying problems.
[1] Department of Security Studies and Criminology. (2020, October 9). Mapping Networks and Narratives of Online Right-Wing Extremists in New South Wales (Version 1.0.1). Sydney: Macquarie University