New Zealand is rolling out a bespoke deradicalisation program as the threat from people holding violent anti-authority beliefs grows and its security agencies make an unprecedented plea for the public to report those showing signs of taking extremist action.
Security officials say that in a “sea of hate speech” where, increasingly, younger people are being radicalised online by a messy grab-bag of ideologies, they more than ever need the public’s help in identifying those at risk of turning to violence.
The government has in turn promised to be more open about the threats security agencies face as they struggle with a national culture that has long regarded them with distrust and granted them a limited social licence.
As agencies made their case at the country’s second summit on countering violent extremism, senior public servants spoke to the Guardian about the new counter-radicalisation initiative, to be formally launched in December after nearly two years of development, saying it would create specific plans to deter those deemed to be at highest risk of carrying out violent extremism.
Headed by the police and involving six other departments, it aims to provide wrap-around solutions to keep participants engaged with society and education, and even reintroduce them safely to the internet – the site of radicalisation for many.
The summit also included the first public report of its kind from intelligence agencies about threats to New Zealand’s security – information that would previously only have been shared behind closed doors – and followed the release of a booklet outlining signs a person is being radicalised to extremist violence.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said New Zealanders “need to know more about the current and emerging threats to our national security because ultimately, we all have a role to play in preventing the worst.”
Changing security landscape
Rebecca Kitteridge, the director general of security, said her agency’s caseload was now an equal split between violent extremism motivated by identity, faith, and anti-authority views – a significant shift from a year ago when the latter did not feature on the threat landscape.
Such views gained momentum during New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine rollout, and some were on display during the occupation of the grounds of parliament that ended violently in February this year.
Kitteridge said her agency needed the public’s help to distinguish from “a sea of hate speech” those who were planning to commit violent acts.
She said signs that someone could be moving from rhetoric to action included them developing a hostile us-versus-them worldview or paying particular attention to their own security, such as “going to a very great extent to make sure that that they can’t be detected or that they’re scrubbing things from their phones”.
The new approach is part of the ongoing response to the white supremacist terrorist attack in 2019, in which 51 Muslim worshipers were murdered at two mosques in Christchurch.
A December 2020 report into the attack – which concluded it could not have been detected except by chance – urged “a cycle of information sharing, public engagement and scrutiny” from the government to counter years of national avoidance of the topic, which had left security agencies with “limited social licence, political support and funding”.
‘Hard conversations’
Nearly two years later, the government is attempting to generate such a sea-change in public opinion – but it is unlikely to be simple.
“This country has a real problem with having hard conversations,” said Sanjana Hattotuwa, a research fellow at the Disinformation Project. “And it’s great to have the acknowledgment from political leadership that the conversation is an important one, but then you have to follow up with policy or frameworks or institutional mechanisms and that’s kind of what they’re struggling with.”
One initiative is the multi-agency deradicalisation program to formally launch this year. Fleur de Bes, the police prevention manager for counter-terrorism, said New Zealand’s smaller population to comparable western nations would allow officials to create a tailored program for each participant.
In a private briefing, those heading the program said those at risk of committing extremist violence were getting younger, and are being mobilised in an alarming online environment where they are exposed to child exploitation material and graphic footage from the Ukraine war. Those who are referred to government agencies are increasingly espousing a sprawling set of ideologies – rather than one core motivator – presenting further challenges.
De Bes and her colleagues did not say how many participants had engaged in the program’s pilot versions; the government has committed $8.44m to the initiative, He Aranga Ake, over four years.
Among those watching closely at the summit were relatives of victims of the 2019 mass shooting.
Aya al-Umari, who lost her brother Hussein al-Umari at al Noor mosque, said she welcomed more discussion but did not feel confident the government knew “how to go about” the process of deradicalisation, particularly for those espousing new and evolving ideologies. Proposals were light on practical detail three years on from the attack, she said.
Officials frequently mentioned the need for “communities” to be involved in reporting and disengagement initiatives, added al-Umari, which also prompted alarm that they would fall under additional scrutiny or be required to do the bulk of deradicalisation work themselves.