ASIO has revealed it wants more ideologically motivated extremist groups to be designated as terrorist organisations, in addition to the newly listed Sonnenkrieg Division (SKD).
The listing of SKD under the Criminal Code, announced by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Monday, marks the first designation of a far-right extremist group as a terrorist organisation.
“It is not the only (ideologically motivated) group we have proposed,” ASIO director-general Mike Burgess told Senate estimates.
“Obviously, how that happened, and whether or not they meet the legal threshold, is a matter for others.”
The SKD is a UK-based neo-Nazi group which was last year outlawed in Britain, where its members have been convicted of encouraging terrorism, disseminating terror material, and preparations for a terrorist act.
Mr Burgess told Senate estimates on Monday: “This is a group that actually does have reach here. Some Australians do connect with this group.”
He said other ideologically motivated groups listed as terrorist organisations overseas “also have reach here”.
But said he believed SKD’s US counterpart, the Atomwaffen Division, was “defunct”, along with the far-right UK group National Action.
Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells welcomed Mr Burgess’ decision, announced this week, to refer to “ideologically motivated extremism”, rather than far-right extremism, saying Nazism wasn’t a right-wing ideology.
Read the article by Ben Packham in The Australian.