Security agencies are monitoring the rise of extreme right wing groups over fears they will commit terrorist acts in Australia.
An ASIO report has warned that while Islamic extremists are the biggest terrorist threat facing the nation, there are also a number of extreme right-wing and left-wing groups ‘willing to use violence to further their own interests’.
‘Members of these groups are diverse and have differing agendas, including extreme right-wing and extreme left-wing ideologies,’ ASIO’s ‘Security Environment and Outlook’ report revealed.
A group of white Australian men who identify as National Socialists, or Nazis, have joined the anti-gay marriage campaign
‘A few small subsets of these groups are willing to use violence to further their own interests.
‘Social discourse around anti-Islam and anti-migration issues has increased, and public protests for and against have become more frequent; these provide an opportunity for ideological adversaries to converge and sporadic violence can result.
‘Over the past 12 months, violence at protests has mostly comprised small-scale clashes between right-wing and left-wing opponents at anti-Islam protests or protesters targeting police maintaining public order.
‘A further concern is the increased communal violence between opposing groups in Australia. We have already seen violence between anti-Islam and left-wing groups and protests and rallies, especially in Victoria,’ the report said.
Another terrorist group linked to the Nazis, Antipodean Resistance has also raised the concerns of government officials when it recently plastered a number of swastikas and racist murals around Sydney.
The group recently vandalised the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney’s north-west with several Nazi posters.
ASIO report says Islamic extremist (pictured) are the biggest threats facing the nation
In April, the University of Sydney was also targeted by the group who have hosted ‘radicalisation camps’ in Queensland and in Melbourne in the past.
Video produced by the group and shared to social media shows small groups of men, dressed in camouflage gear, walking through scenic areas carrying swastika flag.s
On the trips, pictures show them using Socialist Alliance posters to fuel their campfire.
At the end of the video, a logo appears with text reading ‘This could be you!’ and encourages viewers to ‘join your local Nazis’.
‘The prime minister needs to be condemning neo-Nazi groups,’ Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday, reports AAP.
‘It’s an extraordinary thing that he’s just remained silent in the face of ugly statements that have been made in relation to the marriage equality survey.’
Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite said the opposition had warned such activity from far-right groups would occur if a plebiscite or postal survey went ahead.
‘It appears that these organisations are now coming out of the woodwork because we’ve got this debate going on regarding marriage equality in Australia,’ he said.
Members of Antipodean Resistance plastered posters around Melbourne claiming same sex marriage ‘enables pedophilia’
The responsibility for the increasing vocalisation of far-right groups lay with Malcolm Turnbull due to his inability to get a free vote through his party room, Mr Thistlethwaite said.
‘Because of that, gay and lesbian Australians have to face this vitriol, this divisive campaign that really they don’t deserve,’ he said.
Two challenges to the postal survey will be heard by the High Court on Tuesday and Wednesday with a ruling expected before postal surveys are sent out on September 12.