Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has attacked Australia’s domestic intelligence chief for using the term “rightwing” while warning of the growing threat of rightwing extremism, saying it offended conservatives.

The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), Mike Burgess, warned last week of the significant and growing threat of the ‘“extreme rightwing” in Australia, describing small cells meeting to salute Nazi flags, train in combat and spread hate.

The speech deliberately and repeatedly used the descriptors of “extreme rightwing” and “extremist rightwing”, differentiating the threat from mainstream politics.

Holocaust denialism and far right on rise in Australia, says Frydenberg Read more

But the comments appear to have caused offence among some sections of the Liberal party. Fierravanti-Wells confronted Burgess during a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, complaining of the use of the word “right”.



She said: “I am concerned about this and concerned about the use of terminology of ‘right’. ‘Right’ is associated with conservatism in this country and there are many people of conservative background who take exception with being charred [sic] with the same brush.

“I think that you do understand that your comments, particularly when you refer to them solely as ‘rightwing’, has the potential to offend a lot of Australians.”

Fierravanti-Wells sought to characterise some rightwing extremists as actually being of the left, while simultaneously saying “it doesn’t really matter what spectrum they’re on”.

“I think you would equally agree that there have been instances in this country where there have been so-called rightwing extremists protesting with flags that denominate, whether it’s the BLF flag or other flags, have indicated their politics are not actually rightwing, they were actually leftwing,” she said.

“So I think the time has come, director general, especially for you, to ensure that the terminology that you use is very careful and so that ordinary Australians, particularly those of conservative background, are not offended.”

Burgess said he had never intended to offend anyone.

“I totally get it and my intention was not to offend any innocent people in that regard,” the intelligence chief said. “As I say, it’s unfortunate that we refer to it as rightwing extremism, but in the absence of anything else … maybe we should consider another label.”

The matter was raised in parliament last week by Labor’s Josh Burns, who warned that the actions of mainstream political parties mattered in encouraging extremist ideologies.

Dutton says 'leftwing lunatics' must be dealt with as Asio warns of far-right threat Read more

“Our words and our actions as members of parliament matter,” Burns said. “The leadership we show or fail to show matters. The far right is an extremist ideology that breeds, and feeds off, hatred of Jews, Muslims and others of all sorts of racial and ethnic-minority backgrounds.”

Immediately after Burgess’s speech, the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, raised concerns about extremism of the “far left” and “far right”.

“If somebody is going to cause harm to Australians, I just don’t care whether they’re on the far right, far left, somewhere in between, they will be dealt with,” he said. “And if the proliferation of information into the hands of rightwing lunatics or leftwing lunatics is leading to a threat in our country, then my responsibility is to make sure our agencies are dealing with it, and they are.”

Burgess raised no concerns about the far left in his speech.

