The Wieambilla shooting will raise “important policy questions” for government and security agencies, with political leaders voicing concern around the role of extremism and conspiracy theories in the deaths, and the government considering changes to terror laws.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said Australians should be concerned at the rise of misinformation, calling for further crackdowns on internet platforms hosting such content.
“The spread of disinformation on the internet and the way in which that infects people’s minds, and changes their whole persona, their whole perspective and causes them to commit or contributes at least to them committing extreme acts, it should be of concern to any right-thinking Australian,” he said.
Parliament paused on Thursday for condolence motions for police officers Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, and neighbour Alan Dare, who were shot dead at the property of Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called it an “atrocity … a vicious and deadly ambush”, paying tribute to the slain police officers and the neighbour who arrived to help, and sending condolences to the local community in mourning.
“Locals have been saddened by these deaths and shocked by such a senseless atrocity,” he told parliament.
“An act of violence and bloodshed so sudden, so cruel, so alien to the community and country that they know. And so far beyond rational comprehension.”
Dutton, who is a former Queensland police officer, became emotional at times in his address.
“Our nation clearly has lost three wonderful Australians,” he said. “Three people who embodied compassion, commitment and courage during their lives and in their final moments.
“It’s those qualities which will continue to inspire confidence in us to confront evil wherever it lurks.”
Police are investigating the ideologies held by the Train family. Gareth Train posted regularly on well-known conspiracy websites about a mistrust of police and claims the Port Arthur massacre was a false-flag operation.
The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, said earlier this year that the agency had seen “a distinct increase in radicalisation and specific-issue grievances” even as the overall terrorism caseload had declined.
In his annual threat assessment, Burgess said a growing number of individuals were “motivated by a fear of societal collapse or a specific social or economic grievance or conspiracy”.
Police are conducting multiple investigations into the Queensland shooting and have requested public speculation on motive be limited. However, political leaders voiced concern about the role of misinformation and conspiracy theories in the shooting incident, and flagged potential reforms.
Albanese said Australia had a responsibility to examine “what drove their killers and finding a way to draw that poison out of our nation”.
Speaking on the condolence motion, the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said social media had “turbocharged” extremism and conspiracy theories, and that national security agencies were “actively considering the implications” of the shooting including misinformation and radicalisation.
“Once the picture does start to clarify, it’s likely radicalisation will form a part of it,” she said.
“There will be deep and very important policy questions for us here as a parliament to think about how our country prevents and deals with acts of violent extremism.”
In a press conference, Dutton spoke of “lunacy” and “crazy ideas” seeded by conspiracy theories. He encouraged the government to revisit laws giving police greater access to encrypted messaging apps.
“Impressionable young minds – as we’ve seen in recent years – can be encouraged to go off to conflict,” he said. “They can be encouraged to spread all sorts of conspiracy theories and subscribe to those and spread that hatred and we should be very concerned about that.”
O’Neil said earlier this month that the government was reviewing terrorism laws to better capture the kind of activity conducted by rightwing extremists, such as “lone wolf” or less sophisticated attacks.
“[Attorney general] Mark Dreyfus and I are working together to look at some of those laws and see whether there are legal changes that will be needed to capture violent conduct in the rightwing terror world that perhaps is not being caught by what’s going on in religious fundamentalism,” she said.
O’Neil and Dreyfus on Thursday declined to detail what those changes could include, but it’s understood two new home affairs taskforces on national resilience and “strengthening democracy” will be involved in any response.
It is expected the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security (PJCIS) will in the new year re-establish an inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia.
The PJCIS chair, Labor MP Peter Khalil, said the nation needed “a society-wide approach to countering extremism which addresses the factors of radicalisation at the source”.
“The pipeline towards extremism needs disrupting at its source, not just at the pointy end of the spear where violent attacks are imminent,” he said. “Broader policy settings and interventions are just as important.”