Counter-terror spies get $74m to monitor extremist chatrooms
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The news: Australia’s spy agencies will be handed $74 million to monitor online radicalisation, in the first budget handed down since the Bondi terror attack.
The context: Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has revealed next week’s federal budget will include a new Counter Terrorism Online Centre (CTOC), jointly run by ASIO and the AFP and working with international law enforcement.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has consistently singled out online radicalisation as a primary concern, warning the internet helped to accelerate perpetrators towards violence with increasingly little warning.
“More young Australians are being radicalised online, and it happens fast,” Burke said.
“We already have centres dedicated to protecting children and combatting cyber crime; establishing a centre for online violent extremism and terrorism is the next logical step in a fast-moving threat environment.”
The Albanese government said the CTOC will allow spies to monitor “high-risk online spaces” to assess which threats are credible, and to disrupt extremist content and activity online.
The announcement came five months after the Bondi massacre, the deadliest terror attack on Australian soil, which prompted the Albanese government to launch a royal commission into antisemitism.
The commission’s interim report, released last week, focused on potential intelligence failures in the lead up to the attack.
Speaking after the report’s release, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Bell had found Australia’s existing laws did not hinder agencies from preventing or responding to the attack.
“No urgent changes are required to keep Australians safe,” he said.
Five of the report’s 14 interim recommendations remain redacted because they “could compromise sensitive national security information”, Albanese said.
What they said: “The capability we’ve always had to monitor extremists in the meeting room, now extends to the chat room,” Burke said in a statement.
“A bolstered online threat capability will give AFP and ASIO the resources they need to target terrorists and violent extremists online.”
The source: Albanese government statement
