For Arno Arr Michaelis, anti-social behaviour became a kind of addiction as a kid.

"Hate was just another part of the thrill," he says.

"Really what I craved was to repulse civil society and nothing appals people more than a swastika."

He joined a neo-Nazi skinhead group in the US for seven years and was part of the worldwide Hammerskin Nation movement.

By 1994, Mr Michaelis was a single parent to his young daughter in Wisconsin. He decided to leave the group after a friend was shot dead in a street fight and others were jailed.

"It finally hit me that if I didn't change my ways, death or prison would take me from my daughter," he says.

"The violent extremist person needs to get to the point where they think, 'this is f***ed up, I can't do this anymore'."

Now, Mr Michaelis is one of several former extremists leading efforts to reform those attracted to far-right or Islamic terrorism around the globe.

"We want to get them talking about it, that's basically like therapy 101," he says.

Mr Michaelis believes governments, including Australia's, aren't doing enough to learn from experiences like his to confront rising far-right extremism.

"The States is just as far behind as Australia if not more so. Mainly our Government doesn't see white nationalism as a threat.

"Even if they were able to admit that it was a threat, I don't know that they're going to be able to put a lot of resources behind it."

'Nothing's going to change unless there's a body count'

Matthew Quinn is the founder of Exit Australia, a program established in 2016 that monitors and works with extremists to disengage them from violent ideologies.

He says Australia is more than a decade behind when it comes to soft intervention for non-Islamic extremists, such as those on the far right.

Soft intervention includes programs that police, community leaders and schools could refer people vulnerable to extremism to, before they become entrenched in the ideas and join an extremist group.

"Myself and others have been banging our heads on the wall to try and get the Government to listen to these other violent extremists coming up," Mr Quinn says.

"They're just spreading the hate and influence online, they've talked about doing attacks and nothing's done."

White nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville famously escalated into a far-right terror attack in 2017. ( The Indianapolis Star via AP )

Mr Quinn says following the Christchurch attack, he and others expected Government to convene counter-extremism leaders to improve programs for far-right extremism, but there was no communication.

"We don't actually think the Government is taking it seriously until there's another violent extremist attack by a far-right — or any other violent extremist other than ISIS — in Australia."

Mr Quinn claims that in a large number of the cases he has worked on, individuals who were identified as potential extremists were not referred to any form of intervention program before they became radicalised.

Since 2014, at-risk individuals have been able to be referred to the Government's Living Safe Together programme. But Mr Quinn claims many have not been referred for soft interventions.

"I know of cases and investigations going on at the moment, many that I've been involved in, where violent extremists [have been known to police but not referred for intervention]."

He wants a policy shift to encourage police to make referrals for soft intervention, rather than the current system which favours monitoring an individual until there is sufficient evidence to make an arrest.

The ABC spoke with someone else who has worked on the frontline of Australia's counter-terrorism efforts, but did not want to be identified.

He backed up Mr Quinn's claim that at-risk individuals were not being referred to disengagement programs and suggested a belief existed within government and policing circles that an arrest — rather than soft intervention — gave an improved perception of community safety and made it seem as if police were "doing something" about the problem.

He says it's distressing Government is not taking the threat of right-wing extremism seriously.

"Nothing's going to change unless there's a body count … right-wing extremists are seen to be unthreatening hillbillies with mental health issues.

"They don't acknowledge there's a problem … the Government has identified their "other", the radical Islamists, and ignored the white extremists."

The NSW Police Force said in a statement to the ABC that a number of State and Federal programs exist that can be tailored to an individual wanting to travel to and from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. But the statement made no mention of initiatives targeted towards the far right.

Far-right extremism is a global problem. Here, supporters of a white nationalist political group in the US give Nazi salutes while taking part in a swastika burning. ( Reuters: Go Nakamura )

A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs said the Government's countering-violent extremism strategy addresses all forms of violent extremism, including far-right extremism.

"All extremist groups are taken seriously, regardless of the background of the perpetrator."

Current government-funded counter-violent extremism programs in Australia include deradicalisation programs in the prison system, online programs to identify extremists, and community projects that encourage social harmony.

In a statement, the Multicultural Affairs Minister David Coleman said:

"I regularly meet with community leaders to discuss our counter-violent extremism and social cohesion programs to ensure they are fit for purpose."

The Minister also emphasised that the Coalition's 2019-20 budget includes increased funding for grassroots initiatives with $71 million pledged for a social cohesion package.

But experts like Mr Quinn say little of this is dedicated to the far right.

Australia could look overseas

International groups that harness the experience of former extremists are finding success, in a model that could be replicated in Australia.

The US State Department's director of counter-violent extremism, Irfan Saeed, has been working with Australian authorities on counter-terrorism.

He says Australia's approach needs to adapt so communities' members are at the forefront.

Mr Michaelis works with Serve to Unite in the US and is in the process of setting up a hotline which families and extremist groups can call for help.

He says there is one thing that drives every violent extremist he has met in his 10 years in the field.

"In every single instance, it's suffering that drives people."

Arno Michaelis's work to prevent violent extremism involves addressing the social issues that drive people to extreme groups. ( Supplied )

His approach is to use his own experience to show it's possible (and desirable) to leave an extremist group.

Survivors of extremist attacks are also becoming active in prevention. In Norway, Bjorn Ihler became interested in rehabilitation after surviving the 2011 mass shooting on the island of Utoya that killed 77 people.

He's worked to rehabilitate around 40 fighters from the Middle East and North Africa and supporters of far-right movements through his organisation Khalifa Ihler Institute.

"There's a lot of former extremists, people who've been engaged in far-right movements or Islamists, who are now heavily working against violent extremism and helping others," he says.

Bjorn Ihler says some of the best people he knows are former extremists who've turned their lives around. ( Supplied )

Mr Ihler's team identify people who engage with or share extremist content on social media.

"They've been surprisingly responsive and a lot of them are engaging in dialogue, sharing the reason why they've been radicalised," Mr Ihler says.

Enticing someone to leave a group, he explains, comes down to practical solutions like employment and protection from those who would see an ex-member as a traitor.

Education is key

Across the different types of extremism, education is a factor that comes up time and again in preventing radicalisation.

Rahmatollah Andar is a former member of the Taliban and can vouch for the need to educate youth.

After eight years of fighting, he was imprisoned for three years for his involvement with the Taliban.

"The upbringing of my family and the place where I studied in Pakistan influenced me," he says.

"The fight of the Taliban is not straightforward, they call it jihad, but jihad is a holy war, and this is not."

Rahmatollah Andar was a member of the Taliban for eight years and now works with Government to stop people joining such groups. ( Supplied )

Mr Andar says the Taliban wouldn't let him leave.

"They kidnapped my brother and I had to fight against them and I started an uprising," he says.

Mr Andar now works with the Afghan Government in counter-violent extremism to educate those who may be influenced to join.

"The youth [who join Islamic State or the Taliban], they have no education, they haven't studied, they live rurally where the Taliban are strong", he says.

"In Afghanistan, death is normal and the chance to live is limited, especially for people working in counter-violent extremism."

Saba Story Media & Research Organisation's Nangyallah Nang says his group focuses on contextualising holy text and streamlining religious rulings so it comes from approved channels, not recruitment groups.

Counter violent extremism work in Afghanistan has focused on religious education as many religious leaders aren't able to interpret Koranic text. ( Supplied )

"We are graduating thousands of Ulema (religious leaders) a year, but there are no employment opportunities. They live in the districts with poor economic conditions," he says.

"When the extremist groups come to them, they offer them some amount of salary."

To offer an alternative, SSMRO trained thousands of students of religion to work in local radio stations to disseminate counter-violent extremism messages to the 2 million people who tune in.

Mr Nang says while some youth were completely opposed to hearing counter-terrorism messages, many others abandoned support for the Taliban after their interaction.

Beatriz Buarque's organisation Words Heal the World uses a similar approach in Brazil.

Words Heal The World works with university students in Brazil to combat hate speech by producing media content. ( Supplied )

They target university students, working with them to produce messages to challenge hate and their own stereotypes: 88 per cent of participants enrolled in their course indicated they had a different perspective on an ethnic or religious group on completion.

"Students write articles, they do interviews, they produce short documentaries, social media campaigns and events, like a day about anti-semitism," Ms Buarque explains.

"When they change their own misconceptions, they reproduce this with their friends, with their families and with their community."

In Brazil and the UK, the course has become an elective at two major universities.