Vic taskforce targets disaffected youth

Part of a $25 million plan to stop the radicalisation of Victorian youth will be the recruitment of positive young role models.

Premier Daniel Andrews says next Tuesday's budget will include $25 million over four years to establish a taskforce.

He says an important part of the work of the taskforce, led by deputy premier James Merlino, will be providing positive role models for young people in danger of being radicalised.

"We need to enlist a generation of young positive role models who can go and speak as peers to young people who are disengaged from their families, their community, from their faith," Mr Andrews said.

Another important aim of the taskforce was to understand what drove young people to join these extremist organisations, he said.

"We truly don't understand what's driving this. Pretending we've got all the answers, I don't think that's going to keep us safe."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott welcomed the announcement.

"The states have a fair bit of experience in this area," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

The federal government has offered the state's about $30 million for various programs to counter violet extremism he added.

"We want to work with people who are at risk of succumbing to the lure of the death cult and try to bring them back," he said.

"So many of them have been brainwashed and hypnotised online."