XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc, aus.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics   
   From: d@ray   
      
   The Australian Christian Lobby has raised serious concerns about the   
   Senate’s inquiry into “right-wing extremist movements”, warning it may be   
   incompatible with United Nations international human rights norms, and that   
   it could be weaponised by the far-left to silence their political   
   opposition.   
      
   The Senate referred the inquiry to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs   
   References Committee on December 7 last year, with a report due by 6   
   December 2024. Submissions were due on April 5 and are now published on the   
   inquiry website.   
      
   The Christian group’s March 22 submission stated that according to UN human   
   rights authorities “counter-extremism measures must relate to far more   
   tangible, and real threats, involving violence, than the subject matter of   
   this inquiry; and respect must be maintained for fundamental human rights,   
   including freedom of expression”.   
      
   “The ACL is extremely concerned that this inquiry is not confined to key   
   issues such as preventing terrorism, countering violent extremism, or the   
   implications of radicalisation that leads to terrorism and violent   
   extremism.”   
      
   The ACL went on to state that the Terms of Reference of the inquiry are   
   “much broader than extremism associated with violence” as they only refer   
   to “violence imagined at a remote point” rather than “threatened or   
   actual   
   violence”.   
      
   “Note that the Terms of Reference for this inquiry should be of major   
   concern because they concern activities involving no violence, not even   
   appropriately connected to violence. Submissions are invited on whether   
   there even exists the ‘capacity for violence of extremist groups and   
   individuals holding such views’.   
      
   “The inquiry appears to be concerned more with matters that have no current   
   association with terrorism or violent extremism, namely harmless political,   
   right-of-centre beliefs. The Terms of Reference could be construed as an   
   exercise in identifying harm where it does not exist, and in creating the   
   opportunity of associating politically ‘right wing’ views with extremism,   
   to invoke justification for repressive measures against political   
   opponents.   
      
   “The Inquiry is likely to appeal to the radical far-left elements that   
   propagate narratives that those with a message contrary to their own are   
   posing an extremist threat when, for example, protesting in support of   
   women’s rights or other highly politicised matters, as a means of shutting   
   them down.”   
      
   The inquiry has received 21 additional submissions, including from ASIO,   
   the Australian Human Rights Commission, and the Counter Extremism Project   
   (CEP), a New York-based “international” NGO set up by former US government   
   officials.   
      
   The CEP submission, written by Joshua Fisher-Birch and Alexander Ritzmann,   
   based in the US and Germany respectively, claims that “Australian   
   right-wing extremists have become leading voices in the decentralised   
   online neo-Nazi sphere”, and warns about the “Active Club strategy”.   
      
   The CEP recommends that the Australian eSafety Commissioner “address the   
   broad re-emergence of Australian right-wing extremist individuals and   
   groups with for-profit online platforms like Twitter/X”.   
      
   “These individuals or groups often violate the terms of service of the   
   platforms, which generally claim that they do not allow the presence of   
   White supremacists/right-wing extremists on their platform,” the CEP   
   submission said.   
      
   “Strengthening the legal framework for platform regulation could be   
   contemplated to ensure and enhance comparable content monitoring standards   
   between platforms.”   
      
   The CEP submission also urges the government to crack down on “crowdfunding   
   efforts from members of the Australian right-wing extremist community”, and   
   suggests following the example of Canada, where bank accounts of “freedom   
   convoy” protesters where shut down during the Covid pandemic.   
      
   Additionally, the CEP recommends “monitoring of changes in strategy of   
   organisational models of right-wing extremist groups due to the proximity   
   of Australian key extremist individuals to the transnational Active Club   
   network” which it claims was “specifically developed to evade law   
   enforcement monitoring and intervention”.   
      
      
      
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)