Key points:
- Three members of the Train family killed two police officers and 58-year-old neighbour Alan Dare
- Security agencies 'actively considering' implications of the killings.
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton said disinformation 'infects people's minds'.
Conspiracy theories are being "turbocharged" by social media into extreme violence and pose a new threat to national security, the home affairs minister has warned.
Clare O'Neil has confirmed Australia's security agencies are "actively considering" the implications of a deadly shooting in Queensland this week, in which three family members, apparently driven by anti-government conspiracies, murdered two police officers and their neighbour at a rural property 300km west of Brisbane.
Ms O'Neil said while law enforcement is still working through what motivated the "despicable acts of violence", radicalisation will likely "form a part" of the puzzle they ultimately piece together.
Speaking at a condolence motion for the victims in federal parliament on Thursday, she described disinformation driving radicalisation as "problems as old as time".
"But it is absolutely clear from events here and around the world that conspiracy theories ... are being turbocharged by technology into terrible acts of violence," she said.
"[It is] presenting a new kind of threat to our national security. 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 violent extremism."
Anti-authoritarian 'lunacy'
Ms O'Neil made the comments just hours after Opposition leader Peter Dutton called for tighter regulation on encrypted messaging services, sounding the alarm over the rise of anti-authoritarian "lunacy" in Australia in the wake of the massacre.
Mr Dutton, himself a former Queensland police officer, became visibly distressed as he paid tribute to the three victims, as Prime Minister Anthony urged Australia to eradicate the "poison" of extremism lurking in the shadows.
Forensic examinations are continuing where Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and 58-year-old neighbour Alan Dare were gunned down at the property on the Western Downs on Monday, while it has been claimed members of the Train family planned to "take police out".
Tributes at Tara Police Station in Tara, Queensland after an ambush in which two officers and a bystander were killed. Source: AAP / Jason O'Brien
"It was a sophisticated surveillance system and that is very, very concerning to us, knowing that this ruthless, murderous trio went to this extent with a view to I firmly believe, to take police out," he told the ABC.
Mr Dutton called for tightened regulation on encrypted messaging services that allow conspiracy theories to be shared, saying law enforcement mustn't be prevented from viewing that dangerous content.
, although he posted about them on an online forum rather than via encrypted software.
Mr Dutton said the anti-government rhetoric being shared should concern any "right-thinking Australian".
"We've seen in recent years 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 … extreme acts," he told reporters.
Constables Matthew Arnold (left) and Rachel McCrow were responding to a call for a missing person when confronted by a "hail of gunshots" at a remote Queensland property. Source: Supplied / Queensland Police
The Train brothers' father Ronald Train said he was struggling to comprehend how his sons, who cut ties with him 23 years ago, .
"I just could not understand how something like this could have occurred, with two children who had been raised by my late wife Gwen and myself," the retired pastor told Nine's A Current Affair on Wednesday.
"They went down this track, this dark track, which we have no understanding of."
'Poison'
Speaking at the condolence motion, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the three victims, who he said were motivated by “that great Australian instinct to help”.
Mr Albanese described the murders as "so sudden, so cruel, so alien to the community and country that they know. And so far beyond rational comprehension".
“Part of the responsibility that all of us have is not just a solemn duty of remembering and honouring those who were killed," he said.
“It is examining what drove their killers, and finding a way to draw that poison out of our nation.”
Mr Dutton, himself a former Queensland police officer, told parliament “our nation has clearly lost three wonderful Australians”.
Pausing regularly to compose himself, the Opposition leader said the officers’ courage in their final moments will be remembered and revered.
“It’s those qualities that will inspire confidence in us to confront evil wherever it lurks,” he said.
