Experts question decision to not deem Queensland shooting ‘domestic terror’

Experts have questioned why Queensland police have resisted classifying the murder of two police officers in Wieambilla as terrorism, amid evidence that the shooters had been inspired by fundamentalist Christianity and conspiracy theories.

Queensland deputy police commissioner Tracy Linford on Thursday said the murder of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold on a remote property was not deemed an act of domestic terror because there was no evidence of a connection to any "particular group"."We are certainly not classing it as a domestic terror event. At this point there's nothing really to indicate that," Linford said."What we can see is sentiment displayed by the three individuals - the three Train family members - that appears anti-government, anti-police, conspiracy theorist-type things."But we can't see them connected to any particular group that they might have been working with or inspired them to do anything. We haven't located anything like that at this point in time."

The comments came after evidence emerged of links to other conspiracy theorists in the US and a glut of online posts made by one of the shooters - Gareth Train - that appear to demonstrate a series of ideological influences, including elements of fundamental Christianity and the conspiracy-fuelled sovereign citizen movement.

Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, an associate professor at the University of Queensland who specialises in national security law, said there was "no doubt" the shootings could be classified as terrorism, which, in Australia, can be defined as any religious, political or ideologically motivated form of violence.

She compared the shooting to the 2014 Lindt siege in Sydney, in which lone gunman Man Haron Monis held dozens of people hostage during a 16-hour siege that led to the deaths of cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson.

"He obviously claimed a link to Isis but they were very tenuous at best, but that isn't what made it terror - it's that he was harming people for a religious, ideological reason," she said.

While Ananian-Welsh questioned whether terror designations were helpful - saying that in some cases it could serve to glorify violent acts - she said Australia had an inconsistent record when it came to classifying violence.

"It certainly doesn't look good if Australia continues to label every act of violence by a Muslim actor as terror and all of the rightwing extremism, which we are seeing rising and seeing more warnings about from Asio, as murder or just regular crime," she said.

A former national security official who wished to remain anonymous said part of the reluctance to label the shooting as a terror attack could stem from possible embarrassment in the intelligence community that the shooters were not flagged earlier.

"It's definitely terrorism, that shouldn't even be in question," the former official said.

"I think there's a sense that this was avoidable. There was a lot of evidence here of a motivation that clearly wasn't picked up. There are real questions to be asked here of how these people escaped attention."

While the Trains did not express a coherent ideology in their online posts, Ananian-Welsh said that was rarely the case in terrorism cases where mental health often plays a key role in the violence.

"So in this case, if they are advancing some sort of ideological cause, it doesn't have to be a coherent cause for it to be labelled as terrorism," she said.

Part of the ideology expressed online by Gareth Train reflected elements of the sovereign citizen movement, which gained increased notoriety during the pandemic as adherents challenged state border closures and mask rules in shopping centres.

In the US, the movement has previously been linked to violent attacks such as the 2010 shooting of two police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas, by a father and son.

Intelligence agencies have long identified sovereign citizens as a potential threat. In 2011 the FBI in the US defined it as a "domestic terrorist movement", while NSW police identified about 300 sovereign citizens living in the state in 2015, describing the adherents as "a potential terrorist threat".