Domestic spy agency ASIO and federal police have noted the recent increase of right-wing extremism in Australia.

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally will ask the coalition government to support a bipartisan probe into the issue.

"We need to send a clear message to the community that the parliament rejects the hatred division and violence that emanates from right-wing extremists groups," she told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

Senator Keneally is concerned right-wing groups listed as terrorist organisations in Canada and the UK haven't been proscribed in Australia.

She wants the probe to look at proscription laws and examine whether counter-terrorism programs including deradicalisation are fit for dealing with right-wing groups.

"Understandably in Australia we have been focused in the last 20 years on the threat that comes from Islamic extremism, Islamic jihadism, but right-wing extremism is different," Senator Keneally said.

"They have different motivations, different organisational structures, different methods and tactics."

The opposition will seek support for the inquiry in the lower house on Wednesday.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last week described calls to treat right-wing terror differently from Islamic groups as "ridiculous nonsense".

He believes law enforcement and security agencies should treat everyone the same, regardless of motivation.

Australian Federal Police top brass have noted the difference between right-wing and Islamic groups including the former having more access to guns.

The AFP have also pointed to different levels of organisation and structure between the two strands of extremist thought.

Australian Associated Press