If you think you know what a Nazi in Australia looks like, you may be surprised at the evolution of modern extremist groups.
Dr Troy Whitford of Charles Sturt University has studied far-right and far-left groups in Australia and says both extremist ideologies had changed their focus and methods over time, and in the case of the far right, even their looks.
Whitford said the far right had evolved from its image of skinheads wearing Doc Martens and had become more focused on involvement in communities.
Nowadays they are growing their hair long, and learning from organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah — both of which the Australian government lists as terror groups — who take care of services in the community such as fixing plumbing, providing education, and policing, he said.
“The far right are starting to see that there’s things they can learn from those type of terrorist organisations,” Whitford told SBS News.
“What they’re trying to do now is to integrate themselves better into community service … it could be anything from [volunteering in] a soup kitchen through to helping people — just trying to play a positive role in society.”
What [the far right is] trying to do now is to integrate themselves better into community service … it could be anything from [volunteering in] a soup kitchen through to helping people — just trying to play a positive role in society.
Dr Troy Whitford, Charles Sturt University
The Counter Extremism Project has also warned of the threat from “active clubs”, which were created in the United States in 2020 to “make fascism fun”.
“They are often founded by members of established openly extreme-right Neo-Nazi groups to attract members from mainstream society,” the project’s senior adviser Alexander Ritzmann told a Senate inquiry into right-wing extremist movements in Australia this year.
The organisation explained in a submission that active clubs recruit people through focusing on brotherhood, fitness and self-defence, and were started as a way of avoiding scrutiny from authorities.
They don’t display obvious Nazi symbols in public and are asked to avoid threatening behaviour.
But the Counter Extremism Project said there was increasing evidence to suggest the network’s main objective was the creation of “shadow militias” that could be called upon for violent action.
It believes an active club called Croweater was founded in South Australia this year.
When asked about active clubs in Australia, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess told the Senate inquiry he was not familiar with the term but was aware of white supremacists, accelerationists and neo-Nazis who were “very smart in staying on the right side of the law”.
SBS News asked ASIO whether it had observed a trend Australia of far-right groups trying to integrate themselves into communities as a way of recruiting members but a spokesman said the agency did not comment on intelligence or individuals.
A diverse range of extremist views emerging in Australia
The changing nature of extremist groups and ideologies in Australia is just one layer of a complex spectrum of threats that authorities are grappling with.
Last week Burgess raised Australia’s terrorism threat level for the first time since 2014.
The last time it was raised, the threat from the self-proclaimed Islamic State group was the dominant concern in Australia, and Islamist extremism remained the focus for almost a decade. Authorities lowered the threat level in 2022 after the collapse of the caliphate.
In announcing last week’s increase in the threat level from “possible” to “probable”, Burgess pointed to an assortment of ideologies concerning authorities.
Burgess told ABC’s 7.30 program that while Sunni violent extremism (from organisations such as Hamas) and the conflict in Gaza were a concern, this was not the reason the threat level had been changed.
He said eight incidents of alleged terrorism or potential acts of terrorism had been investigated in Australia since April, with less than half being religiously motivated.
“Across the eight there’s an equal mix of religiously motivated, nationalist and racist violent extremism,” he said.
Burgess told reporters that more Australians were embracing a diverse range of extreme ideologies, and were willing to use violence to advance their cause.
Anti-authority beliefs were also growing and provocative behaviour was being normalised, he said.
“This trend increased during COVID, gained further momentum after the terrorist attacks in Israel, and accelerated during Israel’s military response.”
Burgess said ASIO anticipated an increase in politically motivated violence — including terrorism — across all ideological spectrums as polarisation, frustration and perceived injustices grew.
“Attacks are likely to occur with little to no warning and will be difficult to detect,” he said.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has warned of the risk of terrorism motivated by a range of extreme religious, nationalist and racist beliefs. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
‘It’s a really hard journey for young people’
Burgess said young people in particular were vulnerable to being radicalised.
He said five of the eight incidents involved minors or youth. The oldest perpetrator was 21, the youngest was 14.
“Extremist ideologies, conspiracies and misinformation are flourishing in the online ecosystem, and young Australians are particularly vulnerable.”
Whitford said young people had always been at the cusp of social and political change.
“They’re passionate and they’re more exposed to ideologies and ideas at a quicker rate now than they’ve ever been.”
Criminologist Dr Clarke Jones of the Australian National University said people could be groomed online, or socially through breakaway groups within communities.
Children with certain vulnerabilities were more susceptible to this grooming.
Jones said he had a list of around 60 factors that could either contribute to a vulnerable mindset or to making someone more resilient.
Risk factors included poverty, unemployment, family dysfunction, mental and physical illness, and low levels of education. Grievances from unfair treatment or discrimination could also contribute, as could unpredictable events such as a death in the family or rapidly changing political situation.
Jones described the process of grooming as similar in some ways to joining a cult, where followers become obsessed and the leader’s influence is developed over time.
Online games with a range of unknown players can provide an opportunity for grooming, he said, as they provide time to build trust with strangers.
But Jones stressed that just because people had certain vulnerabilities, this didn’t mean it would lead to violent extremism. Some young people were resilient to risk factors, and others could take the path of gang membership, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviour or eating disorders.
“It’s a really hard journey for young people these days and I think we’re seeing this playing out more now,” he said.
It’s a really hard journey for young people these days and I think we’re seeing this playing out more now.
Dr Clarke Jones, Australian National University
Jones said he was concerned the focus on terrorism could push youth crime into a space where the consequences were a lot higher.
“Outcomes are going to be different,” he said. “When it involves young people, I’m concerned about that because entering into the criminal justice system — it’s a very slippery slope from there.”
Rise of mixed ideologies
Burgess told 7.30 that someone involved in a recent incident referenced both the far-left ‘Antifa’ movement and neo-Nazis, something he says “defies logic” but was based on violence.
But Whitford said the mix of ideologies wasn’t necessarily a surprise because both far-left and far-right thinking, when taken to extremes, is about strict control.
“Totalitarianism doesn’t have to be left [communism] or right [fascism],” he said. “Both [are] about imposing your ideology, your will, upon a population.”
Whitford said many people want to just call the far right “dickheads” and leave it at that, but he believes there’s a need to understand them better than we currently do.
“We’re not actually looking at the root cause,” he said. “We want to look at what’s driving this. How can we fix this?”
In ASIO’s submission to the Senate inquiry, it said the organisation had moved away from using terms “right-wing” and “left-wing” extremism in 2021.
To more accurately reflect the nature of the threat, ASIO instead refers to religiously motivated violent extremism and ideologically motivated violent extremism.
The evolution of the far right
Whitford said anti-immigration was still the far right’s core concern, but their platform had evolved to become more anti-globalist, a stance that wasn’t prominent in the 1980s and 1990s.
These days it emphasises nationalism and national pride more, he said.
He said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the right had fed on conspiracy theories, blaming things like vaccine mandates and lockdowns on a perceived globalist agenda.
Neo-Nazis protesters are ordered to leave an area in Melbourne during an anti-immigration rally in May last year. Source: AAP / Michael Currie/SOPA Images/Sipa USA
“They create a narrative where the individual is under threat, that there’s totalitarianism from the left, and there’s big government in the centre and the average Australian is having their living standards reduced, their rights taken away,” he said.
The far right’s belief in a globalist conspiracy to erode traditional family values or clean living, leads them to blame it for things like LGBTIQ+ awareness being taught in schools or education about drug use.
“Anything where the state’s interfering, particularly with children — [access to] puberty blockers and things like that — they see that as authoritarian government trying to shape the world into a progressive society that they’re rejecting,” Whitford said.
But he said care needed to be taken about labelling all those on the far right as neo-Nazis, although many were certainly ultra-nationalist.
For those wishing to understand the modern far right, Whitford pointed to Christchurch killer Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto, which discussed the infiltration of the government and army.
“They’re trying to get into aspects of society and work that to their advantage,” he said. “That’s where they’ve lost that sort of violent approach, they’re trying to work within a society.”
The ‘new’ progressive left
Whitford said the left had also evolved beyond its Karl Marx-influenced origins of representing the rights of the working class.
He said the new progressive left was about being anti-racist, pro-LGBTIQ+, pro-environment, anti-war and in favour of neo-Marxism, which values individual freedom.
In some cases, there is an anarchist outlook against established government.
Whitford said the far-left Antifa movement, which opposes fascism and racism, is more of an ideology than an organisation.
A group of Antifa protesters mourn at the site of a makeshift memorial where US woman Heather Heyer was killed in 2017 by a man who deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people after espousing neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs. Source: Getty
He believes the movement’s stance on using violence in cases when its opponents are using violence is what makes it an extremist organisation, although he acknowledges others may disagree with this view.
Whitford said the use of violence is in contrast to some historical progressive movements which were not violent.
‘There’s nothing in common about us anymore’
Whitford believes the “echo chamber” of social media has reinforced people’s outlooks on the world and led to more radicalisation.
“The way we speak to one another, the way that we approach politics, has become harsher,” he said.
“So people are becoming more angry and more radicalised.”
The way we speak to one another, the way that we approach politics, has become harsher. So people are becoming more angry and more radicalised.
Dr Troy Whitford, Charles Sturt University
Whitford said ‘identity politics’ had also been used by governments in many countries including the US, UK and Australia, to identify different types of people in society, and essentially play them off each other.
While some groups genuinely need more assistance than others, Whitford said identity politics had sometimes been used as a deliberate tactic to prevent society from unifying.
“When it’s played to its end game, then you have a fragmented society, and you have a society that’s fighting itself.”
Whitford said the speed at which people are being radicalised and then committing acts of violence could also be attributed to how common vitriol had become.
He said it had become the norm to feel hatred towards leaders or institutions, and people seem to be allowed to say whatever they want about anyone on social media.
Politicians often also focused their attacks on each other and not their policies, he noted.
“We’ve become victims of our own society, our own language and the way that we do politics,” he said.
What to look out for and what to do
As the parent of three teenagers, Whitford said he tried to talk openly about everything with his kids, including politics and religion. He stressed the importance of sensible discussion and decisions based on reason.
Whitford said if parents started to hear the words of extremists or divisive figures like Andrew Tate being quoted, he recommended trying to delve deeper into what their children were looking at and thinking about.
“If you get a sense that some of their outlook is a bit radical, deconstruct it, ask them: ‘How did you find this particular point? what’s the basis of your view?’
“It’s really just down to communication and not having a household where you say ‘I hate [Donald] Trump’ or ‘I hate [Kamala] Harris’ — you don’t hate anybody, you don’t know them.”
It’s really just down to communication and not having a household where you say ‘I hate [Donald] Trump’ or ‘I hate [Kamala] Harris’ — you don’t hate anybody, you don’t know them.
Dr Troy Whitford, Charles Sturt University
Jones agreed communication is important and said there were protective factors that could help insulate children from being attracted to extremism, including a strong community, school belonging, close family and even religion.
“I see religion as a very strong protective factor,” he said. “It’s when they have poor religious knowledge and they try to justify their action in the name of religion [that drives terrorism].”
Jones said parents should be aware of children isolating themselves, losing friendships, locking themselves in their rooms, or engaging in excessive and secretive online use.
But he said it was difficult to know when to contact police, or whether it was better to seek help from a psychologist or mental health expert.
“It’s a real challenge for parents,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged that social cohesion could not be taken for granted in Australia, and had to be nourished and cherished as a national asset.
“The essence and purpose of our democracy is that we can express our views respectfully, engage in disagreements, in respectful debate, resolve our grievances peacefully,” he said.
