A member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Dr Kelly has spent more than  30 years working in the intelligence field, and said Friday's politically motivated attack in Christchurch, which killed 50 people, has traumatised the nation "to the bone".

"We really feel their pain," Dr Kelly said.

"This was an Australian, and we've had a taste of this attitude with Nazis coming down to Bega and posting their filth."

Dr Kelly's comments are in relation to last year's posting of stickers and posters throughout Bega, including his office, by a neo-Nazi white supremacist group.

"In the old days they'd sit in the loungeroom and scream at the TV, but now they can coordinate via social media," he said.

Dr Kelly, whose wife and son are Jewish, had pig entrails thrown at his Queanbeyan office, and said he has received numerous death threats.

"I've been calling out the threat of the far-right for a while," Dr Kelly said.

"It's not a majority, but there's a responsibility for people in the community to set the tone.

"We here have to take this lesson to heart. We have been talking about removing the refugee signs, and that was the one the Nazis put stickers on.

"We are effectively saying 'we agree with you' to these Nazis with this view."

Dr Kelly called for Australia to focus on deradicalisation programs for radical extremists, whether they be returning from war zones overseas or born and bred in Australia.

"We need to really treat this as a global issue," he said.

"We have to play our part and make sure they get locked up and deradicalised before they're let lose on society again.

"We should take responsibility as part of a global effort as the United States has said we should.

"We have to deal with extremism as extremism.

"One thing I've been at pain to highlight is that the Muslim community is our first line of defence, and ASIO has highlighted this.

"Creating an inclusive society is our best way."

Dr Kelly praised the gun laws implemented by former Prime Minister John Howard, and welcomed what both current Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Bill Shorten have said in the wake of the Christchurch shooting.

"We need to learn a lesson about extremism and not do things that could generate further events leading to more extremism," he said.

"We all have to be vigilant and understand how extremists operate and not be apathetic.

"It's the first thing we need to do to have a healthy society.

"I think social media has real risks and a lot of corners of it become antisocial media."

The 59-year-old said tech companies must monitor social media traffic, and more focus should be put on community policing of extremism.

"For example if there's pictures of someone with weaponry then it's a question of tracking that," he said.

"But at the end of the day I think there's been a focus on the technological side and an under-investment in the community helping counter violence and extremism.

"We need more investment in community policing."

He said the idea had been a key focus of former deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force Nick Kaldas and has been discussed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

"We're getting a recalibration now, and a bipartisan approach now calling this extremist behaviour out," he said.

"I hope we can agree on a new path forward, we just need to encourage people on a positive way forward."