'More organised, sophisticated and security conscious than before': Right-wing extremist threat growing

Australian security agencies are on alert for extremists who could have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque killer and other massacres overseas, as small far-right cells across the country are becoming more organised and sophisticated than ever before.

The concern is being heightened by extreme right-wing groups increasingly attracting people from a military background who know how to use weapons, as well as a younger membership who aren't displaying obvious signs of their extremism - making them harder to detect.

ASIO boss Mike Burgess sounded the alarm on right-wing extremism earlier this year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Brenton Tarrant, 29, was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to slaughtering 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques.

The Morrison government has opened the door to the Australian-born white supremacist serving out his sentence in Australia.

The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation has been increasingly focused on right-wing extremism for a number of years, including the possibility of extremists being inspired by killers such as the Christchurch gunman.

The problem is being fuelled by online forums allowing people on the far-right to make quick and easy connections with like-minded individuals around the world, which ASIO believes has created a toxic peer environment in which acts of violence based on extreme right-wing ideologies are "encouraged, glorified and promoted".

But the Christchurch terrorist has also fractured the extreme right-wing community in Australia, with some idolising him as a saint but others believing he has damaged their cause.

ASIO has redoubled its efforts to focus on right-wing extremism in recent years after an acknowledgement that it hadn't been on its radar to the same extent as Islamic terrorism - with not as many links into the community and deradicalisation programs in place.

The security agency confirmed the terrorist threat in Australia remained "PROBABLE".

While the threat of violence inspired by Islamic extremism remained the domestic security agency's greatest concern, a spokesperson for ASIO said "extreme right wing groups and individuals represent a serious, increasing and evolving threat to security" and Christchurch was a "stark example of this".

"The extreme and violent right wing has been in ASIO’s sights for many decades and we have maintained continuous and dedicated resources to this area," the ASIO spokesperson said.

"Unfortunately, extreme right wing groups are more organised, sophisticated and security conscious than before.

"These groups are becoming increasingly ideological; more aware of and committed to specific dogmas, philosophies and views, many of which support or glorify violence. They draw from a diverse variety of ideas and they are attracting a younger membership who display few overt signs of their extremist ideology."

Kristy Campion, a lecturer in terrorism studies at Charles Sturt University, said the Christchurch gunman had already inspired others in the international extreme right-wing community, along with other attacks last year such as the shooting in El Paso, Texas, and the Halle synagogue shooting in Germany.

But she said there were fractures in the extreme-right community over the Christchurch attacker.

"A large number celebrate and deify him as a saint, others disagree with what he did - not out of sympathy for the victims, but rather, they disagree on the strategic logic, the means rather than the end," she said.

An Australian man earlier this year was stopped from leaving the country to fight with an extreme right-wing group on a foreign battlefield after authorities received a tip-off from ASIO.

In March, two men on the NSW South Coast were charged with terrorism offences for allegedly destroying an electrical substation with an improvised explosive device, after authorities were alerted by a series of online posts containing extreme right-wing views.

In his annual threat assessment in February, ASIO boss Mike Burgess said the threat of right-wing extremism was “real and growing”, revealing small cells were regularly meeting in suburbs across Australia to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons and train in combat.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Home Affairs said Australia's deradicalisation programs were designed to apply irrespective of religious, ideological or political motives.