The Australian Federal Police has set up “hate disrupter squads” targeting extremist preachers and white supremacists as Commissioner Krissy Barrett promises a more aggressive approach to combating hate and radicalism.
Barrett said she was alarmed by the growing numbers of young people susceptible to hatred or attracted to violence, and that she expected police to soon identity young people as high risk terrorist offenders.
“Too many influences and influencers are poisoning the minds of our kids and the vulnerable,” Barrett told Senate estimates on Tuesday.
“We will use all our available disruption tools because modern policing is not always about arresting and charging, it includes the benefit of disrupting early.
“Some of our actions will be visible and overt, and other actions will be lawful and covert – and that unpredictability should worry those who are on our radar, and those who will be as we widen our net.
“My advice if you are one of these groups or individuals: your life will become very uncomfortable.”
Barrett said the AFP was taking an “even more aggressive approach” since parliament passed new laws targeting antisemitism and hate speech after the Bondi Beach massacre.
The new national security investigations teams – which Barrett described as “hate disrupter squads” – include a standing operation targeting white supremacists called Operation Drakelow and an operation targeting hate preachers is called Operation Antrobus.
Barrett said that loneliness and feelings of exclusion could be driving the rise of radicalisation, as people who find it difficult to make social connections embrace online forums where polarising views are accepted.
“We are witnessing the continued rise of individual grievance, including those who are willing to make threats in the online world and then carry them out in the real world,” she said.
She said that the AFP and spy agency ASIO’s joint counterterrorism teams have charged 26 young people with terrorism type offences since 2020.
She said that religiously motivated extremism remains the country’s biggest terrorism threat, although ideologically motivated extremism is also on the rise.
The government’s special envoy for tackling antisemitism, Jillian Segal, told Senate estimates earlier in the day that Jewish Australians had been living in a “climate of fear” since the October 7 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.
She said that “antisemitism in Australia has reached a point where sustained, coordinated national action is no longer optional”.
“It’s essential for community safety, for social cohesion and for the integrity of our democracy,” she said. “The events at Bondi marked, I think, a profound turning point for the nation.
“They brought growing antisemitism into sharp national focus and made visible what Jewish Australians had been saying for many months: that fear, intimidation and exclusion are no longer abstract concerns. They are lived realities”
She said her report on combating antisemitism, which contained some contentious recommendations, remained “a relevant and important blueprint for action” as she urged the government to implement it as quickly as possible.
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.