JUSTICE Minister Michael Keenan took a Redlands detour on Monday, as part of his work covering counter-terrorism activities.
Mr Keenan talked to 240 locals, including Redland U3A members on the nation’s efforts to prevent people from being radicalised.
Federal MP Andrew Laming said a major frontier in the battle against extremism was on-line dissemination of information.
“We need to reduce access to extremist material and we need to empower community voices to combat those narratives,” he said.
Mr Keenan outlined early intervention programs that helped move people away from violent ideologies and allowed them to reconnect with communities.
“Thanks to the work of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, we have thwarted 12 terrorism episodes in the last two and a half years,” he said.
Mr Keenan said the event was among the largest he had attended and thanked U3A and Donald Simpson Centre for accommodating the visit at short notice.