White supremacist group hit with counter-terrorism sanctions

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An online network for neo-Nazis has been slapped with counter-terrorism sanctions as part of the federal government's crackdown on antisemitism.

Transcript

00:00Penny Wong announcing those fresh sanctions this morning.

00:05They're being slapped on this group called Terragram, which is essentially a group or

00:09a network of online groups sharing white supremacist content online via encrypted messaging services.

00:18So some of the penalties they will face are things such as big financial penalties, fines,

00:25as well as jail time of up to 10 years.

00:28It does come, though, as the Albanese government is under increasing political pressure over

00:33its response to the slew of anti-Semitic incidents that we've seen, including some over the weekend.

00:40The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is also being pushed by the coalition to explain who

00:44knew what, when, when it comes to the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives that police

00:51do believe was intended to target Jewish Australians.

00:55Senator Wong this morning was on ABC News defending keeping those details secret.

01:00I am certainly not going to get into ongoing investigations because we want to make sure

01:06that police can do their jobs and people can, or everyone involved in the sorts of incidents

01:11you described can be apprehended, identified, apprehended and face the full force of the

01:17law.

01:18What I can say is this is an online network which is all about extremism, white supremacists,

01:26people who spread hate.

01:27And so we have to use all the tools at our disposal to keep people safe, to keep Australians

01:32safe and to prevent our kids being radicalised online.

01:36And this is a very important step by the government.

01:40And Olivia, federal parliament will sit from tomorrow.

01:43National security is set to be a key political flashpoint.

01:46That's right.

01:48The government has been arguing for some time that the Albanese government's response to

01:51the increase in anti-Semitism hasn't been good enough.

01:55So they'll be using this sitting fortnight to push for a number of increased measures.

02:00So they include things such as establishing a specific anti-Semitism task force.

02:06They'd also like to see new legislation introduced that essentially imposes mandatory jail time

02:13for terror offences.

02:15Jane Hume, she's a shadow finance minister.

02:18She was on the ABC News this morning and she has described the government's response generally

02:23as too little, too late.

02:24The prime minister has been weak in his response on anti-Semitism.

02:28We should be able to do more.

02:30Mandatory sentencing for those that are committing terror offences of up to six years.

02:35Mandatory sentences for those that are carrying symbols of terror.

02:39And tougher penalties, particularly for those that are inciting violence against places

02:44of worship.

02:45These are things that the Albanese government could have done and they've failed to do so.

02:49Labor rejects this though and they argue that the coalition has been politicising the issue.

02:54The federal government, this sitting fortnight, will push to strengthen hate speech laws and

03:01this could be, well, the last opportunity to do so, especially if a federal election

03:05is called soon.

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