NSW's extremist violence program prioritises addressing vulnerabilities to violent extremism over deradicalising participants, Communities and Justice department director Heather Jackson said on Wednesday.
The voluntary Engagement and Support Program (ESP) aims to assist individuals and their families and limit risk of involvement in violent extremism, according to the government.
Commissioner Virginia Bell put to Ms Jackson an example of a young man who believed it righteous to kill non-Muslims, asking whether it was essential to try and change his core belief.
"People in a democratic country can hold a belief," Ms Jackson said.
"The second act - the violence - is the particular issue."
Ms Jackson said a participant could successfully complete the program while still holding extreme white supremacy views, so long as they no longer posed a risk of violence.
She gave an example from one ESP graduate.
"In his own words (he maintained): 'I still believe the white people are the master race, however, I don't want to hurt anyone'," she said.
She said participant beliefs were not ignored and could still be challenged through mentoring and other elements of their case plans.
"In some ways, the ideological outcome doesn't matter," Ms Jackson said.
More relevant to the program were the aspects of their lives which caused a participant to arrive at that belief.
Ms Jackson was giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion, which is examining responses to radicalisation and violent extremism.
National counter-terrorism co-ordinator Brendan Dowling previously told the inquiry about a handful of pathways aimed at preventing extremist violence.
They included the National Support and Intervention Program, Step Together, the Diversions Australia pilot, and two now-defunct initiatives.
Mr Dowling, like other corrective bosses, pointed to disengagement as a key objective for those pathways.
"We don't set ourselves an aspiration to change the way somebody thinks, or to measure the success of our programs by changing … what someone's beliefs are," he said.
"Cognitive change would, of course, be a good thing if people were no longer engaging in very extreme ideas. However, the focus of our programs is disengaging a person from violence and mobilisation to violence."
Mr Dowling was appointed to his role in May after the royal commission's interim report recommended the role was made permanent.
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