The Human Rights Commission is facing calls to do more to help stop violence against women being condoned by radical Islamist groups in Australia.

Former primer minister Tony Abbott says the commission needs to be “all over” groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir to stop women being “monstered” by men.

Two women from the local arm of the radical Islamist group were roundly condemned by Australian politicians, police and prominent Muslim leaders last week after a video emerged showing them discussing men “disciplining their disobedient wives” by striking them with a short stick or piece of fabric.

Mr Abbott on Monday joined those condemning the group, which is banned in many other countries but not Australia.

“Why isn’t the Human Rights Commission all over Hizb ut-Tahrir for denying the human rights of women by appearing to condone wife beating,” he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

“If the Human Rights Commission is to justify the $50 million a year that taxpayers spend on it let’s get them on to Hizb ut-Tahrir and some of these other extremist Islamist organisations.

“What about inviting Muslim women who have been monstered by their husbands or boyfriends to get on to the Human Rights Commission so that these people can be properly brought to book?”

His call for action coincided with a wide-ranging opinion piece he wrote in News Corp Australia tabloids about what the government needs to do to restore voter confidence, including the scrapping of the Human Rights Commission.

Mr Abbott said the radical Islamist group was still legal in Australia because it had always managed to keep itself “just within the law”.

– AAP