Politics

Peter Dutton Tries To Shift Focus To “Left Wing Extremists” After ASIO Warns Of Neo-Nazi Threat

"Getting ready to round up anyone with solar panels on their roof or who are caught buying veggie burgers."

by Rachael Conaghan  25 February 2020
peter dutton

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Last night, Australia’s national security boss warned that right-wing extremists are becoming one of our country’s biggest threats.

So, naturally, today Peter Dutton has been working to make sure that “left-wing lunatics” are being dealt with.

People aren’t impressed that our Home Affairs Minister seems determined to equate the rising threat of neo-Nazi terrorism with his own personal vendetta, especially as we approach the one year anniversary of the Christchurch massacre.

Last night ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered the country’s annual threat assessment, where he warned that neo-Nazi’s are emerging as one of the most challenging security threats for the national intelligence organisation.

“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.”

Burgess also said right-wing extremism would “remain an enduring threat, making more use of online propaganda to spread their messages of hate”.

“While we would expect any right-wing-extremist-inspired attack in Australia to be low capability — i.e. a knife, gun or vehicle attack — more sophisticated attacks are possible,” he said.

In response, Dutton took a lead out of Trump’s “both sides” playbook.

“If somebody is going to cause harm to Australians, I just don’t care whether they’re on the far right, far left, somewhere in between, they will be dealt with,” he told reporters.

“And if the proliferation of information into the hands of right-wing lunatics or left-wing lunatics is leading to a threat in our country, then my responsibility is to make sure our agencies are dealing with it and they are.”

Again, for those in the back — not once was left-wing extremism mentioned in the ASIO speech.

But while his comments may be disappointing, they’re certainly not surprising.