The radicalised Perth 16-year-old who was shot dead after stabbing a stranger and lunging at a police officer was one of 141 people around the country taking part in federally funded de-radicalisation programs.
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia revealed that nine of these participants were based in WA and five were juveniles – including the 16-year-old, who had been involved in the program since 2022.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch flanked by Police Minister Paul Papalia and WA Premier Roger Cook during a press conference on Sunday.Credit: Hamish Hastie
There had only been 14 participants in total since the program began in WA in 2015.
The incident – which WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch declined to declare a terrorist event but said had “all the hallmarks” of one – has shone a spotlight on countering violent extremism programs and highlighted the difficulty of reversing radical ideologies.
What are they?
Federally funded and state-run, the programs have different names across the country, but all have similar models that focus on turning people away from radical ideologies that may manifest into violence in the future.
The Department of Home Affairs and the Australia New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee coordinate the program, and $5.6 million has been set aside to operate it this financial year – down from $8.4 million the year before.
In most states, including WA, police are responsible for coordinating the program, but several government agencies including education and health get involved, as well as non-government people such as faith leaders
Papalia said the program helped address the small number of people around the country who held dangerous views but had not committed any offence.
“You can’t just go and arrest them for a view, you can’t lock them up for having a view, no matter how threatening it might be,” he told 6PR on Monday.
“It is based on a program that was initiated in the Netherlands, and they have de-radicalised individuals. It started with people that were neo-Nazis and de-radicalising them out of that.”
How does it work?
Anyone can report someone to the Department of Home Affairs if they are concerned they may become radicalised, including family, friends, social workers, health workers, and teachers.
In the case of the Perth teenager, Papalia said his participation in the program had the support of his parents.
A key pillar of the program is to reduce the individual’s access to online material that might send them further down the path of radicalisation, which WA Premier Roger Cook said included limiting access to online media and social media.
The Perth teenager did not have access to a smartphone.
Once in the program, Papalia said support included peer or religious monitoring, mental health support, mentoring, or education and employment services.
Blanch said ultimately it was not a criminal-based approach.
“It’s actually a support program. So it involves psychologists, the Department of Education, if they are at school, they have faith leaders helping them deal with their issues,” he said.
Why didn’t it stop this incident?
The 16-year-old was a Caucasian who had recently converted to Islam.
Papalia said the stabbing highlighted the challenges with de-radicalisation.
“That’s what this program is about trying to change people’s behaviour ... that’s a tough thing to do so there’s no 100 per cent guarantees with anything that you do in that type of situation,” he said.
“It is a good program in that regard, because in the absence of it, there’s no response to that sort of thing”
Perth Extremism Research Network director Ben Rich said, generally, this kind of preventative work was underfunded.
“There needs to be a lot more resources dedicated to this,” he said.
Blanch said the incident would trigger a review of their efforts.
“I think we have to take each one on a case-by-case basis, but it would certainly cause us to review what we are doing and how we’re doing, and I think the community would expect that we did do that if we do have a tragic event like this,” he said.
With Holly Thompson