Despite security agencies saying right-wing extremism is on the rise, the Immigration Minister says Australia does not have such a problem. 

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) chief Mike Burgess last year said the “right-wing extremist threat is real and it is growing”, with violent right-wing extremism now accounting for between 30 and 40 per cent of ASIO’s priority counter-terrorism caseload. That proportion has more than doubled since 2015. 

While ASIO says the threat of violence inspired by Islamic extremism remains its greatest concern, ASIO also says extreme right-wing groups and individuals represent “a serious, increasing and evolving threat to security”. 

“The extreme and violent right wing has been in ASIO’s sights for many decades and we have maintained continuous and dedicated resources to this area,” an ASIO spokesperson told reporters in August. 

“Unfortunately, extreme right-wing groups are more organised, sophisticated and security conscious than before.”

More recently, the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute’s Mapping Social Cohesion Report has found most Australians are united and optimistic about their future. The report says Australians have the highest level of trust in one another in over ten years. 

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said it is evidence that there is no extremism problem, rejecting comments by home affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally that were in line with ASIO’s statements.

“The government rejects Senator Keneally’s thesis that there is rising extremism in Australia,” he said.

“It is extreme elements, fringe elements, in Australia that need tackling, they are being tackled. What we have here is increased social cohesion, not increasing extremism.”

Senator Keneally pointed out that the Immigration Minister appeared to be contradicting advice from ASIO and Home Affairs.

“Why is the newly appointed Multiculturalism Minister downplaying the threat of right-wing extremism in Australia when his colleague [Treasurer] Josh Frydenberg was warning about it last week? Is Alex Hawke saying that Josh is wrong? That ASIO, the AFP and Home Affairs are wrong?” Senator Keneally said.

“These national security agencies have repeatedly warned that right-wing extremism is a growing and alarming terrorist threat in Australia.”