Australia’s Labor government is set to spend $150 million to help politicians feel safe following a spate of arrests for alleged online threats directed at parliamentarians.
The Australian Federal Police’s National Security Investigations (NSI) teams, described as “flying squads of hate disrupters” by Commissioner Krissy Barrett, have charged at least 15 people for alleged violent online threats to politicians since November.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke met with a group of major party MPs on Monday where some expressed anxiety over their safety due to an increase in “politically motivated threats”, The Age reported.
The $150 million package will include active monitoring of politicians’ social media accounts to “weed out ominous characters”, more police capacity for patrols of home of MPs who feel unsafe, more protection officers for MPs at events, increased security at electorate offices, and “proactive online monitoring” to keep MPs’ personal information private.
The measures come after two men were charged by NSI teams over social media activity last week – a Queensland man who allegedly threatened to kill a federal parliamentarian in an online message, and a NSW man who allegedly sent harassing messages via email, social media, and voicemail to a federal MP’s office.
Home Affairs officials are also concerned by shocking scenes at Sydney’s Lakemba mosque last week, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was verbally abused by angry Muslims as he sat on the floor in his socks.
Mr Albanese was rushed out of the room while surrounded by security, and was then heckled again as he left the mosque, Australia’s largest, at the event for the end of Ramadan.
The Prime Minister has spoken out repeatedly about being upset by comments on his social media posts, and last year made a public plea for politicians and commentators to “turn down the temperature” of debate.
He spoke out after an aboriginal man was charged with allegedly threatening to kill him Facebook and refused bail, warning that the level of threats had “elevated substantially”.
The following month nationalist activist Joel Davis was arrested by an NSI team at a café in Bondi for allegedly asking his online followers to “rhetorically rape” federal MP Allegra Spender in a Telegram post, and has been in solitary confinement in jail in worse conditions than the Bondi terrorist ever since.
Ms Spender told police the post made her feel “worried and concerns”, a court heard.
Header image: Left, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Right, a man being arrested by an NSI team for alleged online threats (AFP).
