Thursday, 24 February 2022

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (10:21): Last week the Legal and Social Issues Committee advised that it is undertaking an inquiry into right-wing extremism as a self-referenced inquiry. The following day the director-general of ASIO spoke about extremism. He said that some Australians believe that the government’s approach to vaccinations and lockdowns infringes their freedoms and that it is in a small number of cases that grievances turn into violence. Mr Burgess also stated, and I will quote:

… the vast majority of people who choose not to be vaccinated will not engage in violence in response to vaccine mandates. The vast majority of protestors are not violent extremists, and the vast majority of the protests are not violent. ASIO’s focus is on a small number of angry and alienated Australians.

…

The behaviours we are seeing in response to COVID lockdowns and vaccinations are not specifically left or right wing.

So we have a committee conducting an investigation into something contrary to the views of ASIO. This committee must be balanced and investigate both left- and right-wing extremism so that it can stamp out all extremism here in Victoria.