00:02Much of today's evidence will centre around the research of Sarah Meagher from the University
00:07of Melbourne and her research really focuses on gender-based violence, misogyny, online
00:13radicalism and youth extremism.
00:16And she has argued in her, she's found in her research that misogyny in particular is
00:21an early indicator of extremism across the full spectrum of ideologies and yesterday's
00:27evidence did stray into the world of misogyny and white supremacy to some extent.
00:33We heard from Julian Drugan yesterday, he's an expert in counter-terrorism from Macquarie
00:38University, who talked about the rise of what's known as active clubs, would seem a rather
00:44innocuous name, but it's a network of white supremacists who approach young men, particularly
00:51lonely and disenfranchised men, at gyms.
00:55And they groom them, draw them into these white supremacist groups through ideals of health,
01:02fitness, but then more male fraternity, which then can veer into militarism and some rather
01:11harmful ideology.
01:12So, we're going to be getting more of a sense, a bit more evidence around how people can be
01:18lured into these spaces.
01:20Another area of key concern is encrypted messaging apps and other unregulated apps where many
01:27people are being lured into.
01:29They're being lured in their curiosity in many respects through the use of far-right memes
01:34and misogynistic jokes, we've heard in the Royal Commission, and then that can then escalate
01:41rather quickly.
01:41Gavin, a senior police officer will also return to give evidence.
01:46What is expected?
01:47We're going to be hearing from Assistant NSW Police Commissioner Leanne McCusker.
01:52Now, she's appeared a number of times already in the Royal Commission, but today's evidence
01:57we'll really focus on how NSW police are able to, first of all, detect early warning signs
02:05of people that are showing risks of becoming radicalised and finding themselves in these
02:11spaces.
02:12But also some of the challenges, given those encrypted messaging apps are very quite difficult
02:17to circumvent.
02:19But also the decentralised nature of many of these white supremacist far-right networks
02:26networks and other ideologically-based radicalisation networks, they are rather decentralised, they
02:32don't have leaders often, so it is quite hard to actually work out a command structure,
02:37if you like, which can be a real challenge for authorities.
02:41But we also expect we may today, or at least in the coming days, hear from police about some
02:47of the proactive measures in place, and also reactive, in order to disengage people from radicalisation.
02:55There's a program called Step Together, run by NSW Police, which works with people that are
03:01at risk of being radicalised, or have already been radicalised, and helping them chart that
03:07pathway out of such a harmful way of life.
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