Australia’s forthcoming regional summit on countering violent extremism will attract representatives from more than 30 countries, the government says.
The attorney general, George Brandis, announced the summit after attending a similar gathering hosted by the White House in the US in February.
Brandis released further details on Tuesday, saying a key focus of the 11-12 June summit in Sydney would be “to identify and develop practical resources and strategies to address the shared threat posed by terrorist propaganda and exploitation of the internet”.
“Isil alone is disseminating upwards of 100,000 pieces of propaganda per day on just one social media platform, grooming and taking advantage of vulnerable individuals,” he said. Isil is Brandis’s preferred acronym for Islamic State, or Isis.
“Government, civil society and industry participants from over 30 nations around the region will discuss ways to improve regional coordination and increase capacity to challenge terrorist propaganda and recruitment.”
The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, is expected to open the summit, which will be co-chaired by Brandis and the justice minister, Michael Keenan. The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, will also address the gathering.
Brandis said the summit would “build on the important work under way globally” on countering violent extremism, with a report on progress in the region due to be provided to the UN in September.
He said it would provide a platform “to highlight the lies of extremist groups, develop counter narratives and turn vulnerable individuals away from violent extremism”.
The Abbott government has pushed through a series of bills to expand the powers of law enforcement and spy agencies over the past 10 months, including the creation of an offence punishable by up to 10 years in jail for travelling to a declared international “no go” zone.
The Coalition and Labor also united to pass laws requiring telcos and internet service providers to store details about customers’ phone calls, text messages and emails, despite concerns about citizens’ privacy intrusion.
A number of counter-terrorism experts have repeatedly called on the government to increase its focus on strategies to deradicalise vulnerable youth.
In last week’s budget, the government committed an extra $450m in security-related funding, on top of the $630m four-year funding boost the government provided to police and security agencies for counter-terrorism activities in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook in December.
