Domestic terrorism in Australia is likely to rise due to the rapidly changing nature and radicalisation of anti-government sentiment, according to a criminologist specialising in lone-wolf terrorism.
Sebastian Araghi, an academic in criminology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), said such attitudes, along with an upsurge in violent attacks, such as the Bondi Junction stabbing, Bondi Beach shooting and Dezi Freeman police murders, should be treated as a major national security concern.
“[It] would certainly suggest that this domestic-originated violence could be an increasingly prevalent risk for Australia,” he said.
“Freeman’s case reveals that there is a growing prevalence of the sovereign citizen movement in Australia, and that, while they have generally claimed to be non-violent and acting only in self-defence against the government, the nature of this issue is potentially evolving to include more violent forms of protest.”
The current National Terrorism Threat Level is set in the mid-range at ‘probable’, indicating a greater-than 50 per cent chance of an attack occurring on Australian soil in the next 12 months.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)’s Annual Threat Assessment 2025 flagged an increase in what it called anti-authoritarian and conspiracy-fueled ideologies, particularly among young Australians and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Burgess, director-general of ASIO, claimed social cohesion risked being destabilised at the hands of the “aggrieved”, or individuals with personal grievances or anti-authority ideologies.
“Rightly or wrongly some Australians feel dispossessed, disaffected, disenfranchised … many of the aggrieved … may still see violence as a legitimate way to effect … change,” he said.
Araghi said a shift towards radical “lone actor” terrorism now accounts for 70 per cent of all terrorist incidents worldwide – up from only 5 per cent in the mid-1970s. He said the primary focus in preventing such incidents is through early intervention, arguing lone-wolf terrorism, as seen in events such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, is hard to spot.
“Once the idea has been conceived … there is little (if any) communication between the terrorist and others about their ideas,” he said.
“Prevention plans have to instead revolve around trying to ensure that the individual never gets past that radicalisation point to where they want to commit the act to begin with.”
While radicalisation is often caused by a combination of factors – primarily ideological, personal, and psychological – instances such as these can often be the tipping point.
Dezi Freeman, the self-described sovereign citizen, accused of killing Victorian police officers Vadim de Waart and Neal Thompson in Porepunkah in August 2025, was shot dead in a stand-off with police on March 30.
Freeman was shot over 20 times when he produced a concealed pistol, reportedly stolen from one of the police officers he had killed, at a derelict property in Thologolong in north-east Victoria, ending a 216-day manhunt involving both Victorian and interstate authorities.
The 57-year-old aligned with the sovereign-citizen movement, a global, decentralised ideology of anti-government activists who refuse to recognise the authority of governments they believe are “corporations”. Adherents refuse to pay tax, hold driver’s licences, and use non-legal arguments in court, while creating their own “law courts” in an attempt to “arrest” public officials.
Though the movement in Australia dates back to non-violent examples in the 1970s, such as the Hutt River Province, its modern radical nature significantly accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Freeman, this ideology manifested in online anti-government outbursts and vitriol, where he labelled politicians “totalitarian Nazis” and “filthy criminals”, and likened face masks to “muzzles” while also labelling the government’s vaccination campaign a “weak excuse” to inject people with lethal substances while scaring them “into submission”. He also boasted of his intent to arrest police officers he viewed as “corporate mercenary protestors”.
Experts say Freeman’s actions and radicalisation reflects a broader shift and growing intensity of anti-government movements in Australia, reminiscent of the 2022 Wieambilla police shooting in Queensland – where two officers were shot dead by the Train family, who like Freeman, held extreme “anti-authority” views.
Both the Train siblings, the perpetrators of the Wieambilla shooting, and Freeman, shared a deep hostility for police. While the Trains viewed police officers from a pseudo-religious point of view – framing them as “devils” and “demons” in an end times-like conflict, both parties nonetheless treated their rural properties as fortresses exempt from the laws of the state.
This “fortress mentality” consistently aligns with that of sovereign-citizen beliefs and likely allowed their residents to self-justify extreme responses to police – with the Trains treating their property boundaries as a “Rubicon”, as reported during an inquest into the Wieambilla shooting, while Freeman’s makeshift and survivalist lifestyle showing the extent to which he was willing and able to evade authority, as reported by The Conversation.
Araghi warned historical incidents like the 1993 Waco siege demonstrated how the actions of governments can become the catalyst for such acts to occur.
He added: “While radicalisation is often caused by a combination of factors – primarily ideological, personal, and psychological – instances such as these can often be the tipping point where the motivations and frustrations exceed too high, causing the individual to commit these acts.”
Main image courtesy of Victoria Police.
