Tony Abbott flags new role to tackle radicalism

Tony Abbott with new commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator Greg Moriarty in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: News Corp Australia

The Abbott government is set to announce a new frontbench position to combat Islamic radical­isation and improve consultation with Muslim leaders and “at risk” communities.

The post, to be announced within days, will have the express purpose of developing better relations with community leaders and tackling the appeal of jihadist teaching. It comes as the government embarks on a new round of counter-terror measures.

Tony Abbott yesterday gave Justice Minister Michael Keenan a new role assisting him on counter-terrorism issues and created the new position of commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator to tackle the “terrorist challenge” and “the alarming trend” of youth radicalisation.

“Australia currently faces a very serious terror threat and has faced a serious terror threat for quite some time,” the Prime Minister said. “Since the terror level was raised to high in September of last year, we’ve had two terrorist incidents and we’ve had six attacks disrupted. Unfortunately, the numbers of Australians fighting with various terrorist groups in the Middle East is going up all the time — there’s now at least 100.

“So this is a serious threat to our safety as a people and as a ­nation, and, regrettably, it is getting worse, not better.”

In keeping with the findings of the review of the Martin Place siege, the government wants to ­increase its efforts to reach out to Muslims. The plan for the new frontbench post was being finalised in cabinet last night.

Mr Abbott said no one should feel threatened or alienated by the new operational and policy responses. The government was making “efforts to work with communities to counter violent extremism and address this scourge”.

Mr Keenan told The Australian he wanted to capture the “same ethos” and energy of Operation Sovereign Borders, but the new roles would not involve operat­ional control of key security agencies. As the government considers tougher measures against those supporting terrorism, including stripping citizenship from second-generation Australians, there is a growing concern that Australia’s Muslims feel threatened.

Previous tightening of penalties in relation to foreign fighters joining Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have drawn criticism from Australia’s Muslim leaders that they were not being consulted and the youth were being alienated.

Mr Abbott said: “There are some people who say that they feel alienated by this, but no one should feel alienated by the government’s efforts to ensure that our community is as safe as is ­humanly possible.”

Attorney-General George Brandis also said the alarming trend of younger and younger people, “now 14 and 15 years old”, being radicalised had to be stopped “at source”.

In addition to Mr Keenan’s ­existing ministerial responsibilities, he will lead the government’s efforts in countering violent ­extremism and support the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General in ensuring close and effective co-ordination of counter-terrorism efforts, Mr Abbott said.

Former ambassador to Indo­nesia and Iran, Greg Moriarty, takes on the new role of commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator, leading a new counter-terrorism office within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Mr Keenan told The Australian the government wanted to ensure that the work of the counter-terrorism operations of the police and security agencies was co-ordinated, with the areas enhancing social cohesion and countering violent extremism. He said the changes were not intended to fix any problem but to better prepare the ­nation for threats to come. “We are not messing with the operational arrangements of the agencies. They do work very well,’’ he said. “This is going to be a small team with a co-ordinating role making sure all those efforts are pushing in the same direction.

“Part of what we are doing is getting an understanding about what does lead people down this road to radicalisation. Why is it that this ultra-violent, medieval outfit in the Middle East can have the pull that it does over a very small section of the population?”

Part of $40 million being spent to counter violent extremism would be spent countering extremist messages online, Mr Keenan said.

The review of Australia’s counter-terrorism activities that followed the Martin Place siege in December concluded that individual agencies were operating effectively but recommended closer co-ordination to deal with escalating threats and improving co-operation with at-risk communities.

Mr Moriarty will head a small team drawn from various agencies. Mr Keenan said the team would co-ordinate everything at the commonwealth level but also work with the states and territories. “We want to make sure that is all brought together so that we can have a well co-ordinated and ­effective approach to tackling what is a threat that is at a higher level than it has ever been in Australia before,” he said.

Mr Keenan said the new level of counter-terrorism co-ordination would draw its drive and focus from the model used in ­Operation Sovereign Borders.

“Operation Sovereign Borders ... gave us great focus and enormous clarity of purpose to get all the agencies together to achieve a very difficult policy goal,’’ he said.