{"id":66162,"date":"2021-08-03T12:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T02:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=66162"},"modified":"2021-08-03T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T02:18:59","slug":"safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In 1922, German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a seminal\u00a0essay<\/a>\u00a0arguing that sovereignty is defined by the power to suspend state law during times of extraordinary threat to national security. The government can then neutralise that threat unencumbered by the laws that normally balance state power with civil liberties.<\/p>\n

After 9\/11, Schmitt\u2019s thesis, not in name but in concept, became the foundation for the Bush administration\u2019s \u2018war on terror\u2019 and US foreign policy for the next 20 years. It provided the\u00a0juridical reasoning<\/a>\u00a0for the US government\u2013sanctioned use of torture, or \u2018enhanced interrogation techniques\u2019, by military and intelligence agencies on the basis of national security, which contravened domestic legislation and international human rights conventions to which the US was signatory.<\/p>\n

In Australia, as in the US, there have been concerns about civil liberties being eroded by the passage of new surveillance and detention laws in order to help law enforcement and intelligence agencies prevent terror attacks. But public and political discourse suggested this was largely perceived as a justified rebalancing of national security risks and democratic freedoms, to protect citizens from the extraordinary threat at hand.<\/p>\n

Today, reeling from successive Covid-19 lockdowns, closed borders and a delayed vaccine rollout, this trade-off is being interpreted very differently by many Australians. Current legislative efforts to neutralise the exceptional threats we face are subject to greater scrutiny as to their impacts on civil liberties\u2014for example, the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access)\u00a0Act<\/a>, used in the recent organised crime bust led by the Australian Federal Police with a host of international partner agencies, including the FBI.<\/p>\n

Managing the balance between security and liberty is an ongoing and necessary part of a democracy. But current concerns are fuelled by growing mistrust in government among parts of Australian communities. The protests that coincided with the \u2018state of emergency<\/a>\u2019 passed by the Victorian parliament in 2020 are an example of this mistrust bubbling over, with citizens objecting to increased policing powers to enforce public health orders. It\u2019s also where mainstream distrust of \u2018oppressive<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018unlawful<\/a>\u2019 government policy was seeded in the Australian far right.<\/p>\n

Right-wing and Islamist violent extremists, along with organised criminals, are increasingly exploiting the relatively unpoliced nature of the internet to recruit new followers and conduct business. Operation Ironside<\/a> demonstrated the vast and resilient organised crime networks operating domestically but embedded in broader, globalised business models. It also highlighted how significant the role of police access to encrypted messaging apps can be in leading to arrests and seizures. Yet the recent passage of\u00a0legislation<\/a>\u00a0that increases the online powers of police and intelligence agencies to disrupt and prevent these threats has left Australians divided, concerned by potential unintended consequences and privacy ramifications.<\/p>\n

According to the AFP, instrumental to Operation Ironside\u2019s success was TOLA, which\u00a0was used<\/a>\u00a0\u2018for the first time in combination with the legal authority from the FBI\u2019. TOLA has withstood significant public, industry and political criticism, fuelled by<\/a> potential\u00a0privacy considerations and ramifications for the tech industry, which is now legally required to decrypt and supply data to police and intelligence agencies in exceptional circumstances. A parliamentary\u00a0review<\/a>\u00a0into the act is pending.<\/p>\n

The great irony is that the global rise of right-wing extremism and neo-Nazism\u2014which has also been seen in\u00a0Australia<\/a>\u2014has accelerated during Covid-19 due to grievances about restrictions on personal freedoms by mandatory public health orders. In Australia, these groups have achieved some level of coordination and coherence by coalescing around the\u00a0idea<\/a>\u00a0of oppressive governments using police to enforce Covid-19 lockdowns. This concern has a legitimate basis, found in the democratic argument that seeks to ensure government and law enforcement are not excessively empowered. But it is weakened by the proliferation of conspiracy theories rife with extremist ideology and narratives that the groups propagate and weaponise in online forums. Examples include disinformation campaigns against public health orders and the vaccine rollout, such as the well-worn lie that Covid-19 is a conspiracy and a hoax.<\/p>\n

Recent polling<\/a>\u00a0suggests that trust in Australian federal and state governments has increased across the mainstream population during the pandemic, while a smaller cohort remains distrustful. But there has been a consistent downward trend in this metric since the 2007 poll, indicative of a general, long-term decrease in trust in government. These trends dovetail with the surge in right-wing extremist ideology, given that anti-government sentiment is often a foundational element.<\/p>\n

The vibrant debate about the federal government\u2019s efforts to increase the powers of policing and intelligence agencies is symptomatic of a healthy democratic political system, built on robust public discourse. But the growing number of people radicalising through right-wing extremism, which in 2021 has grown to\u00a040%<\/a> of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation\u2019s counterterrorism caseload, indicates that something is amiss for at-risk individuals and groups with whom anti-government and other right-wing extremist ideologies resonate.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake here is trust that the sovereign power of the federal government is exerted to protect the\u00a0freedom<\/em>\u00a0as much as the\u00a0security\u00a0<\/em>of Australians.<\/p>\n

The implication for government and law enforcement efforts to stem growing radicalisation enabled by anti-government sentiment is that counterterrorism policing efforts, while necessary, are fundamentally not addressing the factors driving radicalisation. They need to be reframed to account for right-wing extremists\u2019 grievances. Efforts aimed at fostering community resilience to right-wing extremist ideologies and the Covid-era mis- and disinformation campaigns enabling them are critical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1922, German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a seminal\u00a0essay\u00a0arguing that sovereignty is defined by the power to suspend state law during times of extraordinary threat to national security. The government can then neutralise that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1323,"featured_media":66167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[416,930,988,2093],"class_list":["post-66162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australian-government","tag-civil-liberty","tag-policing","tag-violent-extremism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSafety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1922, German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a seminal\u00a0essay\u00a0arguing that sovereignty is defined by the power to suspend state law during times of extraordinary threat to national security. The government can then neutralise that ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-03T02:30:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-03T02:18:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Teagan Westendorf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Teagan Westendorf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":533,\"caption\":\"MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 23: A large crowd gathers to protest at the Shrine of Remembrance on October 23, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Protesters are calling on the end to lockdown restrictions in Victoria following a decline in new coronavirus cases reported in the state. Under current lockdown restrictions, Melbourne residents are able to travel up to 25km from their homes, and no limits on the time people spend outside their homes exercising. People must continue to stay at home unless for the four permitted reasons \u2013 to shop for food and other necessary goods; for care or compassionate reasons; for work or education; for exercise or social interaction, and from Monday, people can also now go to the hairdresser. Up to 10 people from two households can also now meet outdoors. (Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/\",\"name\":\"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-03T02:30:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-03T02:18:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/2c57617fd6456a9afb081334a8aa0aa8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/2c57617fd6456a9afb081334a8aa0aa8\",\"name\":\"Teagan Westendorf\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9964767eaf144ef7e041962b0196371?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9964767eaf144ef7e041962b0196371?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Teagan Westendorf\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/teagan-westendorf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist","og_description":"In 1922, German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a seminal\u00a0essay\u00a0arguing that sovereignty is defined by the power to suspend state law during times of extraordinary threat to national security. The government can then neutralise that ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2021-08-03T02:30:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-03T02:18:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":533,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Teagan Westendorf","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Teagan Westendorf","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1281752281-e1627957124797.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"caption":"MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 23: A large crowd gathers to protest at the Shrine of Remembrance on October 23, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Protesters are calling on the end to lockdown restrictions in Victoria following a decline in new coronavirus cases reported in the state. Under current lockdown restrictions, Melbourne residents are able to travel up to 25km from their homes, and no limits on the time people spend outside their homes exercising. People must continue to stay at home unless for the four permitted reasons \u2013 to shop for food and other necessary goods; for care or compassionate reasons; for work or education; for exercise or social interaction, and from Monday, people can also now go to the hairdresser. Up to 10 people from two households can also now meet outdoors. (Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/","name":"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2021-08-03T02:30:17+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-03T02:18:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/2c57617fd6456a9afb081334a8aa0aa8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/safety-versus-security-an-asymmetrical-opportunity-for-right-wing-extremism-in-australia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Safety versus security: an asymmetrical opportunity for right-wing extremism in Australia"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/2c57617fd6456a9afb081334a8aa0aa8","name":"Teagan Westendorf","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9964767eaf144ef7e041962b0196371?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9964767eaf144ef7e041962b0196371?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Teagan Westendorf"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/teagan-westendorf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66162"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66169,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66162\/revisions\/66169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}