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

Peter Dutton has declared that “leftwing terrorism” includes Islamist extremism after being blasted by Labor for applying false equivalence in the national security debate.

Dutton’s intervention on Tuesday was triggered by a speech by the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) Mike Burgess. On Monday night, Australia’s top intelligence chief warned the threat of rightwing extremism in Australia was real and growing.

Burgess said the number of overall terrorism leads under investigation had doubled over the past year. The director general did not mention leftwing extremism at all during the address.

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Dutton began the day on Tuesday by telling reporters it was important for security agencies to deal with threats from both rightwing and leftwing “lunatics”.

“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,” the home affairs minister 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.”

After facing sustained criticism from Labor about applying false equivalence in the national security debate, Dutton declared on Tuesday afternoon he didn’t want to get bogged down in a “semantic and nonsense debate”.

Asked by the ABC to clarify whether when he referred to leftwing terrorism he meant Islamist groups, Dutton said: “Yes, I do and anybody in between.”

The minister did not explain how Islamic extremists constituted leftwing terrorism. Advice from Asio nominates Sunni Islamist extremism as Australia’s primary terror threat, and it notes Islamist groups are “diverse and have differing agendas, including extreme rightwing and extreme leftwing ideologies”.

But Dutton told the ABC: “You can use leftwing to describe everybody from the left to the right.

“I said today, I don’t care where people are on the spectrum, if they pose a threat to our country and want to do harm to Australians, then they are in our sights.”

The shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, told the ABC that Islamic terrorism “doesn’t sit upon a left/right continuum” and it was important that the government rely on Asio advice.

Keneally said if the Asio director general had pointed to “neo-Nazi cells in Australia, rightwing extremist groups, pos[ing] a terrorist threat in Australia, why haven’t they been listed?”

The Labor MP Ed Husic called for an urgent review of the threat posed by rightwing extremism.

“Nowhere beyond the mouth of the home affairs minister have people been talking about so-called leftwing extremism,” Husic told Sky News. “The fact that the home affairs minister sought to inject that level of politicisation into this demonstrates more of a reflection of his thinking.

“I would be calling on the government to refer to the joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security an urgent review into what is happening in respect to rightwing extremism in Australia.”

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The Labor MP Anne Aly, who was a counter-terrorism expert before she entered parliament, noted America had upgraded the threat of rightwing terrorism, and “in Germany a rightwing terrorist attack has led to an increase in their threat levels”.

“In Australia the head of Asio has repeated that there is an increased threat from rightwing extremists – so which part of rightwing extremists does the minister not understand?”

Dutton said on Tuesday the Morrison government would list rightwing extremist groups as terrorist organisations “if the advice from Asio is that we should”.

“If [Asio] provide the advice to me, recommending that any organisation, rightwing or other, fits the criteria and is to be listed on their recommendation, I will list it,” the home affairs minister said.

While the debate about false equivalence played out in public, Guardian Australia has also confirmed that one of the minister’s advisers cited the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion as an example of a troublesome leftwing organisation during a telephone conversation with a member of the public who sought to query Dutton’s controversial intervention in the debate.

Matthew Noel, an engineering student from New South Wales, says he rang Dutton’s ministerial office in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

Noel says he telephoned to try to establish exactly who the minister was referring to when he raised the spectre of leftwing terrorism.

The student says he spoke to an adviser who identified himself as Mark. Noel says the adviser over the course of the call identified the group Extinction Rebellion as an example of leftwing terrorism. Noel says he said to the adviser: “Are you saying Extinction Rebellion are a terrorist group? [The adviser] replied, yes.”

Dutton’s office has confirmed the call took place. But a spokeswoman disputes some of Noel’s recollection of the conversation.

Dutton’s spokeswoman told Guardian Australia: “The allegation that a member of staff nominated Extinction Rebellion as an example of a leftwing terror group is completely false.

“When asked by the caller, the staff member advised that the group is an example of a leftwing extremist group, not a terrorist group.”

Asked whether the adviser was reflecting the minister’s view during the conversation, the spokeswoman said: “The minister does not believe this group is a leftwing terror organisation.”