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ASIO's Heather Cook revealed right-wing extremism is taking up an increasing percentage of its caseload.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The coronavirus pandemic has also fuelled far-right extremism,with more extremists finding each other online amid anti-government sentiments in response to lockdowns.

Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday,ASIO Deputy Director-General Heather Cook confirmed right-wing violent extremism now accounted for between 30 and 40 per cent of its current caseload in counter-terrorism work. This compared to between 10 and 15 per cent prior to 2016.

"There's always a combination of factors which contribute to an attraction to a particular ideology at a particular point in time,"she said.

"Some of the circumstances of COVID have contributed to an increase in radicalisation,in particular because of the amount of time individuals are spending in isolation or working from home or not in school I suppose,working remotely,the amount of time individuals are spending online.

"I think it[the pandemic] also makes it much easier to be finding like-minded individuals,there is a much wider variety of what I would call chat groups or areas where individuals with these views can coalesce and discuss and I guess promote these views more widely."

Ms Cook said anti-government sentiment being expressed around the world in response to lockdowns and other public health measures was"amplifying some of the extreme views",while speculation about the origins of COVID-19 was fuelling racist views.

She said the way in which extreme right-wing extremists were using the internet to recruit the"young and vulnerable"was similar to the methods deployed by Islamic State at its peak,adding the strategy was being used"to good effect".

But Ms Cook cautioned there was a"significant leap"from holding extreme right-wing views to wanting to carry out violence and some of the ASIO investigations find the person does not intend to commit violent acts.

"I don't think it would be accurate to say that everybody ASIO is currently looking at is about to carry out a terrorist attack,"she told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

Australia is now the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence partnershipwithout any far-right extremist individuals or groups on its terror list after New Zealand last month put the Christchurch mosque killer on its register.

Labor has been calling for a review of Australia's proscribed list of terrorist organisations to ascertain whether right-wing groups should be on the register.

Ms Cook said ASIO was"always evaluating whether or not groups meet those thresholds for proscription".

She said there was difficulty in defining right-wing extremists as a group because they often acted as a"loose coalition of like-minded individuals talking to each other and plotting".

"We are definitely looking at what our partners overseas are doing,but again circumstances are always different,"she said.

ASIO has beenon alert for extremists who could have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque killer and other massacres overseas,as small far-right cells across the country are becoming more organised and sophisticated than ever before.

The concern is being heightened by extreme right-wing groups increasingly attracting people from a military background who know how to use weapons,as well as a younger membership who aren't displaying obvious signs of their extremism.

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