As Kirralie Smith sits at a sidewalk table in Taree for an interview this week, there is a palpable tension. She is mistrustful of what she calls the mainstream media, particularly those elements she believes are biased towards the left.
But Smith has agreed to talk because she will, she says, use any platform to express her view that Islam is an ideology of violence, intolerance and sexism.
Smith received relatively little attention during the last federal election as a NSW Senate candidate for the Australian Liberty Alliance, the political offshoot of the Q Society, which describes itself as "Australia's leading Islam-critical movement".