RESEARCH PAPER SERIES, 2014–15              10 February 2015

Australian Government measures to counter violent extremism: a quick guide

Cat Barker

Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security Section

Countering violent extremism was highlighted as an ‘essential element’ of efforts to deal with the ‘foreign fighters’ issue in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted on 24 September 2014 (Resolution 2178 (2014)). On 11 January 2015, the White House announced it would host a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism on 18 February 2015 ‘to highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups … to commit acts of violence’. The Attorney-General told the Senate on 9 February 2015 that he would represent Australia at the Summit. Against that background, this Quick Guide identifies broadly what is meant by violent extremism and outlines relevant counter-measures pursued by the Australian Government to date.

What is violent extremism?

There is no agreed definition of what constitutes violent extremism. The Australian Government describes it as follows (emphasis in original):

Violent extremism is the beliefs and actions of people who support or use violence to achieve ideological, religious or political goals. This includes terrorism and other forms of politically motivated and communal violence.

All forms of violent extremism seek change through fear and intimidation rather than through peaceful means.

If a person or group decides that fear, terror and violence are justified to achieve ideological, political or social change, and then acts accordingly, this is violent extremism.

Australian Government initiatives

Rudd-Gillard Government

One of the four elements of the February 2010 Counter-terrorism White Paper, Securing Australia, protecting our community, was ‘resilience’, described as ‘building a strong and resilient Australian community to resist the development of any form of violent extremism and terrorism on the home front’. This was followed by the establishment of a Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Unit in the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) and provision of $9.7 million over four years in the 2010–11 Budget for ‘targeted programs to reduce violent extremism in Australia’. A media release issued by the Attorney-General on 11 May 2010 indicated the programs would focus on:

·          identifying and diverting people at risk of violent extremism;

·          supporting rehabilitation and de-radicalisation programs conducted by State and Territory police and correctional services;

·          engaging with communities to improve social cohesion and resilience, including through local meetings and focus groups;

·          developing mentoring programs for ‘at risk’ youth in partnership with relevant community groups;

·          examining the role of the internet in the radicalisation process; and

·          improving responses to violent extremist messages and ensuring they are evidence-based and appropriate to Australian circumstances.

CVE Strategy

The CVE Unit developed a national CVE Strategy in 2011, which according to AGD’s March 2012 submission to a Parliamentary committee, is a classified document. However, a publicly available fact sheet on the CVE Strategy outlines the following objectives and outcomes:

1.        Identify and divert violent extremists and, where possible, support them in disengaging from violent extremism

2.        Identify and support at-risk groups and individuals to resist and reject violent extremist ideologies

3.        Build community cohesion and resilience to violent extremism

4.        Communicate effectively to challenge extremist messages and support alternative narratives

The Australian Government has been working towards achieving those objectives through activities relating to identification and information sharing; motivation, recruitment and containment; referral and support, diversion and rehabilitation; education; and communication.

Building Community Resilience Grants Program

Over half of the funding announced for CVE in the 2010–11 Budget went towards grants administered by the Attorney-General’s Department. The Building Community Resilience—Youth Mentoring Program was announced on 13 November 2010 as a pilot project. Grants of $5,000–200,000 were available to successful applicants for activities that ‘directly assist young people to disengage from intolerant and radical ideologies and encourage positive and constructive participation in the community’. Funding for seven projects totalling over $1.1 million was announced on 22 February 2011. The projects are outlined in the announcement. Most involved training and mentoring young people with the aim of developing them into mentors for others.

In April 2011, the Government announced that in response to community feedback on the youth mentoring program, it was rolling out a broader CVE grants program (the Building Community Resilience Grants Program (BCRGP)), under which grants of $5,000–20,000 and $20,000–100,000 would be awarded for projects that:

·          give communities the skills and resources to understand and actively address intolerant or extremist messages and discourage violent extremism;

·          support people who may be vulnerable to extremist views due to personal experiences of disengagement and marginalisation; and

·          educate groups and individuals about the avenues available to participate positively in the community.

Funding for 22 projects totalling over $1.7 million was awarded in July 2011. The recipients and projects are outlined in the media release. Recipients were from a range of types of organisations, including councils, universities, sports clubs and religious and other non-government organisations, while activities funded included:

·          Intercultural and interfaith education in schools;

·          Peer support and team building activities for at risk individuals;

·          Development of common curriculum frameworks;

·          Sports activities that promote understanding and inclusion;

·          Teacher education;

·          Skills and leadership training to improve social and economic opportunities; and

·          Online resources and activities to connect with international scholars.

The BCRGP continued until 2013. In total, approximately $5.3 million was awarded under the BRCP across 59 projects (note, however, that some appear to be continuations of previously funded projects). A table of recipients, projects and funding amounts is in the Appendix. Full details of projects funded in each financial year are available from the ‘Previous Building Community Resilience Program grants recipients’ page of the AGD website.

Other activities

Less information is available about other activities pursued under the CVE Program. However, details available in AGD’s 2011–12 and 2012–13 annual reports and its 2012 submission and answers to questions on notice indicate they included:

•        community engagement forums

•        the Resilient Communities website (since replaced by the Living Safe Together website), designed to provide information on the CVE Strategy and support services and encourage dialogue on related issues

•        market research on public awareness of, and attitudes to, CVE

•        a literature review (March 2011) , development of a CVE research database and establishment of a research panel

•        support to state and territory agencies for CVE initiatives, including prisoner rehabilitation and ‘deradicalisation’ and programs to prevent radicalisation of other inmates

•        working with state and territory governments through the CVE Sub-Committee of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee (now the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee) and

•        international engagement.

Evaluation

In its 2012 submission and answers to questions on notice, AGD indicated that the CVE Program would be evaluated for relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, with a full assessment of the initial four years to be made after 2013–14. AGD stated that some aspects of the evaluation would be made public and others would not, due to national security considerations. As at the date of publication, it was not clear if the assessment had been completed.

Abbott Government

While the CVE Strategy itself is not publicly available, a comparison of the fact sheet available at the time of publication and that provided to a Parliamentary committee as part of AGD’s 2012 submission indicates that the overarching strategy has remained the same. However, the Government announced a new CVE Programme in August 2014. The prominence of the ‘foreign fighters’ issue is evident in the aim of the Programme, which in addition to preventing home-grown terrorism, includes discouraging and deterring Australians from travelling overseas to participate in conflicts. An AGD officer explained at a Senate Estimates hearing in December 2014 that this represented a new phase, involving identifying and intervening with ‘individuals who perhaps were contemplating travelling to participate in foreign conflicts, had returned or perhaps had been frustrated in their attempts to travel overseas’.

The CVE Programme was allocated $13.4 million over four years as part of a $64 million package of measures aimed at countering violent extremism and radicalisation, itself part of a broader $630 million counter-terrorism package announced on 5 August 2014 and detailed in the 2014–15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

Directory of CVE Intervention Services

The Government has sought applications from organisations for inclusion in a Directory of CVE Intervention Services (the Directory) that ‘will be used by state, territory and Commonwealth authorities when coordinating specific intervention programs for individuals in need’ (but not made publicly available). The Guidelines for Applicants state that to be successful, a service will need to clearly demonstrate that it ‘will assist to divert and disengage individuals from ideologies of violence and hate’. The Directory will initially include six broad categories of services—religious and multicultural mentoring, specialised mental health services, education and employment counselling, youth and community work, case management and telephone and/or online counselling.

Living Safe Together Grants Programme

The Government has allocated approximately $1 million for the Living Safe Together Grants Programme (LSTGP) in 2014–15 only, stating ‘there will be no further funding rounds available in coming years’. The deadline for applications is 2 March 2015. The purpose of the LSTGP is somewhat different from the BCRGP. It is specifically directed at helping organisations build their capacity to deliver services for inclusion in the Directory through either the design and development of new services, improving the sustainability of existing services or refocusing existing services to address radicalisation, not at the implementation of those services.

The Programme Guidelines state that organisations may generally apply for funding of $10,000–50,000 and indicate that to be successful, an organisation ‘must clearly demonstrate that their project will enhance their organisational capacity to contribute to encouraging individuals away from violent extremism’.

Other activities

Less information is available on the remaining components of the CVE Programme. In addition to the Directory and LSTGP, the ‘Countering violent extremism’ page of the AGD website lists the following measures, many of which appear to build on activities initiated under the previous CVE Program:

·          Working with communities so they can identify and help prevent people from moving down the path of radicalisation to violence.

·          Addressing online radicalisation and reducing the impact of terrorist's use of the social media by helping people to develop the digital skills needed to critically assess terrorists' claims and promote alternative messages online.

·          Working with state and territory governments to support the rehabilitation of people imprisoned for terrorism related offences, as well as prevent the radicalisation of other prisoners.

·          The Living Safe Together website showcasing how communities and the government are building resilient communities.

·          A research panel through which countering violent extremism research can be commissioned.

·          An international engagement strategy.

·          Whole-of-government education and communication frameworks and products, including curriculum-based materials.

However, it does not outline how they will be pursued or how the approximately $12.4 million in funding remaining after the LSTGP is accounted for will be distributed across the different initiatives.

Appendix: BCRGP recipients

Grant Recipient

Project

Total Value (inc GST)

Date of effect

Anglicare Sydney

Aussie Youth Connect

$194,363

22/02/2011

Australian Multicultural Foundation

Australian Muslim Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program

$200,000

22/02/2011

Centre for Multicultural Youth

Unite 4 Justice

$138,098

22/02/2011

Hume City Council

Hume Anti-Violent Extremism Youth (HAVEY) Project

$199,964

22/02/2011

Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria

Aman – Youth for Peace Building

$200,000

22/02/2011

JobQuest

Mentoring and Resiliency Development (MARD) Project

$140,131

22/02/2011

Multicultural Media Exchange

Media Makers

$96,952

22/02/2011

Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre

Voices for Change

$142,993

22/02/2011

Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations

Southern Crescent Online Peace Initiative

$32,538

7/07/2011

Islamic Council of Queensland

Empowering Youth to Say No to Radicalisation

$45,650

7/07/2011

Federation of Ethnic Communities' Council of Australia

Teaching Democracy – political extremism, global lessons for local educators

$43,283

7/07/2011

Horn of Africa Relief and Development Agency

Somali Youth Outreach Project

$21,670

7/07/2011

Australian Somali Communities Association

Somali Community Resilience Project

$26,782

7/07/2011

Burwood Council

Different People Different Voices Project

$52,800

7/07/2011

InterAction

iAct Interfaith Youth Leadership Program

$21,483

7/07/2011

The Youth Centre

Building Resilience to Violent Extremism in the Canterbury-Bankstown Region: A Focus on our Youth

$110,000

22/07/2011

Victorian Arabic Social Services

Curbing Radicalisation through Youth Resilience

$100,802

22/07/2011

North Melbourne Football Club

Connect @ THE HUDDLE

$102,300

26/07/2011

Pace e Bene

Building Community Capacity in Nonviolent Leadership: An Interfaith Program for Young People

$88,957

26/07/2011

Youth Development Australia

inSite Projects

$220,000

26/07/2011

City of Darebin

Salam Alaykum – Darebin’s Muslims Reaching Out

$110,000

1/08/2011

Centre for Multicultural Youth

Unite 4 Justice

$158,120

1/08/2011

Islamic Council of Victoria

Audio/Film Production for Youth Engagement and Training

$68,661

1/08/2011

University of New South Wales

Fairfield-Liverpool Youth Exchange

$98,780

1/08/2011

Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University

Young Australian Muslim Leadership Program

$99,990

2/08/2011

Auburn Community Development Network Inc.

Dream Big Project

$108,130

9/08/2011

The Lebanese Moslem Association

Sharing Humanity

$110,000

9/08/2011

Bali Peace Park Association

Beyond Bali Education Kit

$56,297

20/09/2011

Townsville Intercultural Centre Ltd.

Building a Resilient Refugee Community in Townsville

$33,000

29/08/2012

Institute for Judaism and Civilisation Inc.

A teaching manual of the shared values of the major world religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam

$22,000

6/09/2012

Australian Multicultural Foundation Limited

Peer to Peer: Building Capacity and Resilience

$99,000

13/09/2012

Newcastle City Council

Welcome Stranger

$35,200

13/09/2012

Horn of Africa Relief & Development Agency of Australia (HARDA)

Somali Youth Outreach Project

$35,800

13/09/2012

All Together Now

Building Resilience to Extremism - Planting a Seed of Doubt in Young Men

$65,670

17/09/2012

The Association of Hazaras in Victoria Inc.

Tackling Extremism in the Afghan Community

$11,000

17/09/2012

The Roman Catholic Trust Corporation for the Diocese of Cairns (Centacare Cairns)

International Human Rights Day 2012

$16,280

17/09/2012

Islamic Society of South Australia Incorporated

Defining Moderate Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims

$22,000

17/09/2012

Metro Migrant Resource Centre

Resist Within - Development of a Building Community Resilience Educational DVD Resource

$19,800

17/09/2012

Footscray Football Club Limited

Generation M Project

$99,000

26/09/2012

University of New South Wales

South Western Sydney - Youth United

$99,000

26/09/2012

North Melbourne Football Club Limited

Connect 2 Project

$90,200

26/09/2012

Islamic Council of Victoria Inc.

The Community Reconnect Project

$110,000

28/09/2012

The Lebanese Moslem Association

The Positive Intellect (Pi) Project

$110,000

5/10/2012

Burwood Council

Different People Different Voices Project (DPDVP) - Stage 2

$99,000

15/10/2012

Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) Inc.

Hive Television

$90,000

18/10/2012

Macarthur Diversity Services Initiative Ltd

Respect You… Respect Me

$51,040

22/10/2012

Victorian Immigrant & Refugee Women's Coalition Inc.

Women Against Violent Extremism (WAVE): Women Building Respectful & Resilient Communities

$76,799

31/10/2012

Australian Football League

Bachar Houli Cup: Islamic Schools & Leadership Program

$110,000

21/11/2012

University of South Australia

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Muslims but Were Afraid to Ask

$107,804

12/12/2012

Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory Inc.

Asylum Seekers Community Education Project

$56,100

12/12/2012

Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights

Dialogue Across Sectarian Divide

$126,302

1/11/2013

Eelam Tamil Association

Filling the Gap

$77,458

1/11/2013

People Against Violent Extremism

PAVE website and Walk Away From Extremism

$115,700

1/11/2013

Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre

Lead to Achieve

$85,051

1/11/2013

University of New South Wales (Football United)

Youth Connected, Youth United

$131,505

1/11/2013

All Together Now

Exit White Power

$72,857

5/11/2013

Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF)

Community Awareness Training Manual – Building Resilience in the Community

$110,000

5/11/2013

SalamCare Incorporated

From Rage to Salam

$56,500

24/11/2013

Australian Football League

Bachar Houli Islamic Program

$120,000

29/11/2013

TOTAL

$5,342,810

Sources: AGD, BCR grants: 2010–11, BCR grants: 2011–12, BCR grants: 2012–13 and BCR grants: 2013–14, Grants register from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012, Grants register from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 and Grants register from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.
Note: In some instances, the amount of funding recorded in a grants register differed from that recorded in the relevant BCR Grants document. The funding amounts in the table above are all taken from the grants registers, except for 2010–11, for which there is no grants register available.

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