Australia’s peak Jewish group has called for criminal gang laws to be used as a template for a police crackdown on neo-Nazis, warning extremist groups will increase if allowed to flourish unchecked.
An alleged attack by the National Socialist Network on an Indigenous encampment in Melbourne after the anti-immigration March for Australia rally has reignited debate over Australia’s approach to tackling extremist groups.
Peter Wertheim, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s co-chief executive, said he did not believe the National Socialist Network met the threshold for a listed terrorist organisation because they had not engaged in terrorist activity. But he said they had a “clear propensity for hate-fuelled thuggery and menace” and that laws used to combat criminal gangs could be used as a model for them.
He pointed to police powers like those used for outlaw motorcycle gangs as a template for combatting right-wing extremist groups that were not classed as terrorist organisations.
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“Law enforcement agencies would need powers and resources analogous to those available to police under the current criminal gang laws,” he said.
These would include powers to obtain control orders against members of designated organisations and persons who regularly associate with them, Wertheim said.
He said this would also include “enhanced powers of investigation, search and seizure, powers to issue take-down orders to ISPs and social media platform providers, and powers to obtain public safety orders and firearms control orders.
“The legislation should also include anti-consorting provisions making it an offence to associate with convicted offenders after receiving an official warning from a law enforcement agency,” he said.
State and territory laws that aim to crack down on organised crime include specialised police units to enforce them.
Wertheim said they had “considerable success” and could be used as a model for law enforcement to be bolstered with additional powers to deal with extremist groups.
Dr Kristy Campion, a lecturer in terrorism studies, has previously told a parliamentary committee that some extreme right groups in Australia, including the NSN, had met the criteria to be listed as a terrorist organisation.
“Their ideologies are quite fascist and within fascist ideologies, what you typically see is this positive endorsement of violence as a way to achieve social change,” she said.
“Some of these groups, because of their ideologies, legitimise, endorse and glorify violence, including terrorism, to achieve their goals,” she said.
Campion said listing a terrorist organisation was an “incredibly useful legislative tool” because it makes it an offence to join a proscribed group and helps law enforcement deter people from joining.
Listing a terrorist organisation requires Asio to put a case to the home affairs minister who considers ideology, terrorist links and engagement to terrorism, Campion said. The governor can then list the group after the minister’s decision.
The threshold for executive proscription of a terrorist organisation states that a minister must be satisfied that the group is directly or indirectly engaged in preparing, planning, assisting in, or fostering the doing of a terrorist act or advocates the doing of a terrorist act.
Victoria police on Tuesday charged NSN leader Thomas Sewell with multiple offences after an alleged attack at Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty site – a sacred Aboriginal burial ground and longstanding protest site – on Sunday.
Indigenous leaders, including independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe, have called for the NSN to be treated as terrorists.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has pointed to the state’s strengthening of its vilification laws that could capture the recent behaviour of the NSN.
Under the laws, which come into effect later this month, those found guilty of serious vilification offences, such as inciting hatred or making physical threats, will face up to five years in prison.
The laws will increase the penalty from previous vilification offences, which were rarely prosecuted and carried a maximum penalty of just six months.
The laws also expand existing protection against hate speech – previously limited to race and religion – to include disability, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation.
