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TRANSCRIPT:
Following a bomb threat issued in Mandarin against him and other senior officials, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated for several hours from his Canberra residence on Tuesday.
A false claim was made that explosives had been planted to blow the Prime Minister's residence into ruins, days before a scheduled performance by Shen Yun Performing Arts.
This New York-based dance company has been critical of the Chinese communist party, and is banned in China and faces ongoing pressure and demands to cancel its international shows.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher confirmed the incident during an interview on ABC Radio National.
"Well I can confirm that there was a security threat, and the Prime Minister followed the advice of the A-F-P to evacuate the lodge. The police spent a few hours investigating The Lodge, and the Prime Minister was able to return once they'd confirmed it was safe to do so and really appreciate the AFP and all those that work at the lodge, you know, very distressing and unsettling to have that happen while you're at work. And yeah, everyone deserves to go to work to be safe, so the A-F-P have done an amazing job, and the P-M is safe and did return to the lodge last night."
The incident is the latest in a series of threats against MPs.
The Australian Federal Police say 950 incidents were investigated in the 2024/25 financial year - and the sheer number of threats were 63 per cent higher than the previous four financial years combined.
Michael Zekulin is a lecturer in politics and international relations at A-N-U.
He has told SBS that today’s security threats against politicians are part of a long-standing issue.
"Unfortunately, the reality is that this has been a trend for the past several years, mostly post-Covid, where we have seen an increase in threats towards politicians, which include their families and things of that nature. Unfortunately, it's not surprising, but again, it's more and more likely that you're going to start to see more and more incidents such as the one that we have just recently seen, and it's simply the new environment in which we live in. And look, people talk a lot about things such as lowering the temperature, the political rhetoric, the demonisation of whether it's one political side or the other because the reality is that people unfortunately listen and get ideas that this is something that you know is acceptable."
Ms Gallagher says that all politicians recognise the growing threat to their safety, which the Minister believes is being fuelled by social media as a breeding ground for hostility.
She says this is more pronounced following the recent disruption at a defence summit at the Canberra Hyatt Hotel , where a man allegedly threw rocks and a fake explosive device through a window.
"I have certainly noticed it online. And I think, you know, it has, it has changed in my time in politics, for sure, I think people feel more able to issue threats - not so often want to be the front face of them. And so there's a lot of anonymous stuff that goes on. And it takes a lot of time for the A-F-P to work through which threats that they are concerned about and those that they just keep a watching eye on and that's unfortunate. It would be great if people could disagree without issuing a death threat or threatening someone's life at work, that's for sure."
Addressing the National Press Club last October, A-F-P Commissioner Krissy Barrett expressed serious concern over recent shifts in the national security landscape.
"I will outline a worrying threat that we are still learning about in Australia and why we all need to be vigilant. There are decentralised online crime networks and loosely affiliated individuals in Australia and offshore who are glorifying crime online such as sadistic online exploitation, cyber attacks and violence. These crimes are now spilling into the real world, and they have real world consequences. While these networks do not have a centralized hierarchy or a single ideology. They are prolific and are attracted to violent extremism, nihilism, sadism, Nazism and Satanism."
Ms Barrett noted that the majority of their investigations involve religiously motivated violent extremism.
She has highlighted a shifting operating environment, marked by behaviours that may not meet the legal definition of a terrorist act but still pose significant security concerns.
Last month the federal parliament passed new hate speech laws following the deadly Bondi terror attack, which make it easier for the government to ban certain groups that spread messages of hate - even if they don't meet the threshold to be designated a terrorist group.
Ms Barrett says the A-F-P is constantly seeking new policy levers to address these evolving threats.
“Part of our approach to these national security investigation teams is looking at, as I've described, the national strategy - looking at where are the policy levers, where are potential opportunities for new legislation and or amended legislation. Is the legislation working for us as it stands?"
