While not a new phenomenon, Victoria has seen a resurgence of far-right activity both offline and in online space since the mid-2010s (Parliament of Victoria 2022). This has profoundly changed the landscape of violent extremism in the state and across Australia, as reflected in successive ASIO threat assessments (2021, 2022, 2023) that have highlighted a threat of violence from far-right violent extremist milieus. These changes have created new challenges for countering violent extremism (CVE) practitioners across government agencies, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies.

Against the backdrop of the rise of far-right extremism and a volatile and evolving threat scenario, this project examined current intervention infrastructure and programs for addressing radicalisation to far-right extremism in Victoria, the strengths of existing intervention capabilities, what gaps exist, and what improvements may be needed to strengthen Victoria’s capacity to prevent and intervene in far-right radicalisation pathways and trajectories.

The research presented in this report offers a review of current Victorian countering violent extremism (CVE) policy and programming, as well as a comprehensive literature review of far-right extremist intervention methods and radicalisation pathways. The empirical data collected for the study comprises 22 expert interviews with civil society and government stakeholders from Victoria, other parts of Australia and overseas. Based on this multi-method research, this report provides original insights into key features, strengths and gaps in Victoria’s current intervention capability in the context of far-right extremism. It also explores how these capabilities can be further developed and strengthened, for example by drawing on other national or international intervention approaches and tapping into community partnership opportunities.

This project investigates experiences of racism in Uber, among both riders anddrivers in Melbourne, Australia. The research was conducted between November2022 and February 2023, and consisted of two case studies: Case study 1 investigated racism in the experiences of Uber riders (passengers) using field testing methodology. It generated the first Australian data on differential outcomes for Uber riders across three ethnic groups: white Australian, East Asian Australian and African Australian. It also provided data on the geographic distribution of the rides based on the ethnicity of the riders. Case study 2 employed focus groups to investigate Uber drivers’ experiences ofracism. It explored migrant Uber drivers’ positive and negative experiences of driving, including experiences of racism, in another first for understandings of ridesharing and racism in Australia.

In Australia as elsewhere, violent extremist actors have exploited and instrumentalised a contested information environment during concurrent crises in 2020-2021 – including the COVID pandemic and natural disasters like the recent bushfires – to mobilise, plot and commit violent attacks, oppose government emergency responses and challenge or undermine social cohesion. Crises of this nature are likely to persist in one form or another; alongside evidence that natural disasters are on the rise (UN/CRED, 2020), there has been an equally unprecedented spread of misinformation and disinformation and contestation of the cause and origins of these crises (Cinelli, M., Quattrociocchi, W., Galeazzi, A., 2020) that will likely persist. Previous research findings have demonstrated that natural disasters like bushfires, hurricanes, earthquakes and pandemics have the potential to act as push factors to violence (Berrebi & Oswald, 2011; Fisher & Dugan, 2019; Kang and Skidmore 2018).

However, little is currently known about how natural disasters can impact violent extremism in the Australian context and in other high GDP countries. The relationship between the potential for conflict and natural disasters and emergencies is largely unaccounted for in disaster and emergency management (DEM) plans within advanced economies and consolidated democracies. Understanding exactly how natural disasters and emergencies can provide fodder for violent extremist groups and contribute to a mobilisation to violence will remain important into the future.

Around the world, governments in liberal democracies are increasingly worried by the decline of public trust. The question that is often asked is why individuals and communities have declining trust in government institutions. However, the reverse question – whether governments trust communities, and if not, why not – is far less frequently explored. A relationship of trust involves one party trusting another, and that trust being returned. One key quality of trust is therefore reciprocity. For a successful trust relationship to be created and maintained it must be reciprocal. Trust must flow both ways – not just from communities to government but from government to communities.

This Report examines trust relationships between government and communities that play a role in developing resilience to social harms. The particular focus is on the areas of disaster recovery, emergency response and dealing with violent extremism, and the ways in which government officials implement related programs and policies. The aim of the project is to support government officials and community leaders and members in creating and sustaining the trusting relationships that are needed to deliver these types of resilience building programs.

When given access to resources and support young people can rely on technology for work, education, socialising and health. For instance, technology enables online job interviews, virtual classrooms, connectivity to online support groups, and telehealth appointments. However, young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds have faced digital inclusion challenges, highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

This research investigated and identified the factors that can enhance digital participation amongst refugee and migrant background youth in Victoria, Australia. We have a diverse team of researchers and community partners collaborating with young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and together will propose strategies to enhance participation in the digital world.

When given access to resources and support young people can rely on technology for work, education, socialising and health. For instance, technology enables online job interviews, virtual classrooms, connectivity to online support groups, and telehealth appointments. However, young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds have faced digital inclusion challenges, highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

This research investigated and identified the factors that can enhance digital participation amongst refugee and migrant background youth in Victoria, Australia. We have a diverse team of researchers and community partners collaborating with young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and together will propose strategies to enhance participation in the digital world.

An analysis of Twitter content from Victoria in 2020 found low levels of racial vilification if Asians. This surprising low level of public online racism is consistent with reanalysis of survey data. Racism directed against Asian Australians and others is an ongoing source of harm. There is not, however, good reasons to believe that hatred of Asians was successfully mobilized and exacerbated in Victoria in 2020 by mass online means. Racism needs to be confronted wherever it occurs, but the uncritical acceptance of media narratives is unlikely to help the cause of confronting it.

The research addresses the relatively neglected subject of anti-racism in Australia. The research maps the frequencies and forms of everyday anti-racism and prosocial attitudes and interaction in Victoria; identifies the factors and social variations that underlie everyday action; and explores transversal enabler practices quantitatively, including their prevalence.

Kevin Dunn, Jehonathan Ben, Rachel Sharples, Nida Denson, Amanuel Elias, Fethi Mansouri, Craig McGarty, Yin Paradies, Oznur Sahin

This research report summarises the key findings from the VicHealth funded project: Enhancing Digital Participation amongst Refugee and Migrant Background Youth. It makes recommendations for action that can be taken by stakeholders to enhance digital participation amongst young people of refugee and migrant background in the domains of education, employment, health and wellbeing, and civic and social connection.

Anita Harris, Kim Lam, Amanda Third, Phillipa Colin, Sherene Idriss, Soo-Lin Quek, Edmee Kenny, Louisa Wellend, David Cao, Komal Grewal, Alexandra Lee, Michelle Lim, Hiruni Walimungie

This report was produced as part of the project ‘The role of mainstream media in the mobilisation of radical political movements’ funded through the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS). This paper aims to identify key journalistic challenges and discussing practical factors that media professionals are encouraged to consider when making a decision about whether to report about far-right incidents and, if so, how.

Mario Peucker

This research report has been conducted by an NGO called Love Frankie and funded by USAID and contains insightful new research (English and Bahasa) from Love Frankie with USAID on Indonesian youth resilience to violent extremism featuring the BRAVE measure.

Michele Grossman (lead), Greg Barton, Dr Vivian Gerrand, and Michael Ungar (a CRIS Consortium partner).

This report presents bias indicators for the Australian context and discusses their concept, uses, benefits and risks. The bias indicators we present are the result of extensive consultations with local experts including academics and practitioners working in law enforcement agencies, government and non-government organisations and community organisations. We aimed to make sure that the list would be practical and relevant to practitioners working in the fields of hate crime and hate speech.

Matteo Vergani, Angelique Stefanopoulos, Alexandra Lee, Haily Tran, Imogen Richards, Dan Goodhardt, Greg Barton

This report presents findings of a national survey of over 1300 Australians conducted in November 2020 examining well-being and resilience within the COVID-19 pandemic context. The research project looked at the factors that promoted or hindered well-being and resilience during the pandemic, and what we can learn for future crises.

Nida Denson, Kevin Dunn, Jehonathan Ben, Alanna Kamp, Rachel Sharples, Daniel Pitman, Yin Paradies, Craig McGarty

Our research looked at the ways that far-right social media users use mainstream media outlets for their ideological messages. Researchers analysed over 55,000 social media posts from far-right users on Facebook and Gab, and found that all mainstream media outlets, regardless of their political leaning, can be co-opted for ideological messaging.

Mario Peucker, Thomas J. Fisher, Jacob Davey

We report on a stocktake review of racism data collected nationally in Australia and with a specific focus on Victoria. We provide a comprehensive overview, summary and synthesis of quantitative data on racism, identify gaps in racism data collection, analysis and uses, and make recommendations on bridging those data gaps and informing anti-racism action and policy.

Jehonathan Ben, Amanuel Elias, Rachel Sharples, Kevin Dunn, Craig McGarty, Mandy Truong, Fethi Mansouri, Nida Denson, Jessica Walton and Yin Paradies

This briefing paper is the fourth and final output in ‘Symbiotic Radicalisation’, a project in our ‘Dynamics of Violent Extremism’ research stream. Symbiotic Radicalisation is a collaboration between researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University (VU). This paper provides an overview of key trends identified throughout this research program, which examines the online interplay between the far-left and far-right in Australia (with a focus on the State of Victoria) and considers the policy implications of this work.

This report is the first phase of a two-phase action research project titled Building Activist Capacities of Young People Through Issue-based Campaigns.

The report explores key social issues facing young people aged 16 to 25 in Victoria, Australia, and examines how they respond to these issues. This study aims to better understand young people’s experiences of voice, the contexts and conditions in which they can cultivate their voices for social change, and where their voices resonate.

Read the full report here.

Read the summary and key findings here.

Alison Baker, Lutfiye Ali

This report has been designed using images from Freepik.com.

This paper is the third in a series analysing the interplay between far-right and far-left groups in the state of Victoria, Australia, across a range of social media platforms. It provides an analysis of over 400,000 tweets produced by a sample of 151 far-left and 75 far-right Australian Twitter accounts since 2016.

This paper was updated in March 2022.

Cécile Simmons, Joshua Farrell-Molloy, Jacob Davey, Mario Peucker

This report examines Asian Australians’ experiences of racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comprising over 2,000 participants, this is the largest empirical study to date of Asian Australian experiences of racism in the COVID-19 context.

This report was updated in March 2022.

Alanna Kamp, Nida Denson, Rosalie Atie, Kevin Dunn, Rachel Sharples, Matteo Vergani, Jessica Walton, Susan Sisko

This paper is the second in a series analysing the interplay between far-right and far-left groups in the state of Victoria, Australia, across a range of social media platforms. It provides an analysis of over 45,000 posts by a network of 40 active Gab accounts between January and September 2020.

Cécile Guerin, Jacob Davey, Dr Mario Peucker and Thomas J. Fisher

This paper is the first in a series analysing the interplay between far-right and far-left groups in the state of Victoria, Australia, across a range of social media platforms.

Cécile Guerin, Jacob Davey, Mario Peucker and Thomas J. Fisher

This report provides important evidence for all stakeholders involved in tackling hate in Victoria, including policy makers, law enforcement agencies and community organisations, to better understand how to address community reporting barriers.

Dr Matteo Vergani & Dr Carolina Navarro