Labor treats national security as its first priority, with our national interest at its core.

Our national security agencies have repeatedly warned that right-wing, nationalist and racist violent extremism is on the rise in Australia.

In February 2022, ASIO’s Director-General Mike Burgess said that ideologically motivated violent extremism is growing sharply and now accounts for half of ASIO’s priority domestic counter-terrorism caseload.

The Morrison-Joyce Government has not kept pace with this evolving threat. It was only last year that Government designated a far-right group as a terrorist organisation for the first time – well behind our closest international partners.

It has even failed to censure those in the Liberal and National party rooms who peddle the dangerous and divisive disinformation that security agencies warn is driving people towards extremist ideas.  

An Albanese Labor Government will always put the national security of Australia and Australians above party politics.

It’s why Labor has led the agenda on right-wing extremism in Parliament, standing up a Joint Committee on Radicalism and Extremism in Australia with input from experts and security agencies.

Labor sees democratic strength and social cohesion as vital to responding to this threat, promoting inclusion and restoring legitimacy and trust in Australia’s democratic institutions.

In Government, Labor will support multiculturalism and inclusion, and unite the country, not divide it.