Two men have been arrested during social media police raids in Queensland and Victoria for allegedly threatening and harassing federal politicians online.
A 43-year-old man was arrested at a home in the Moreton Bay area, north of Brisbane, on Thursday by an Australian Federal Police National Security Investigations (NSI) team, and his mobile phone was seized for forensic examination.
Police will allege he used social media to threaten federal parliamentarians, and charged him with one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
He was granted conditional bail to appear in Caboolture Magistrate’s Court on January 5 next year, and faces up to five years’ imprisonment if convicted.
On Wednesday an NSI team raided a home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs after “receiving multiple reports of crime from various federal parliamentarians regarding alleged threatening emails”, police said.
A 67-year-old man was arrested for allegedly sending harassing emails, and charged with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
He was granted conditional bail to appear in Ringwood Magistrates Court in February 2027.
The NSI teams are special units set up last year by AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett, who calls them her “flying squad of hate disruptors”, to target groups and individuals “causing high levels of harm to Australia’s social cohesion”.
Last month NSI teams arrested two men in Adelaide and Perth for allegedly posting Nazi symbols on social media.
A week before that a mother was arrested on the NSW Central Coast and charged for allegedly reposting videos featuring WW2 footage and meme images containing swastikas on X, and a 73-year-old man was arrested in Sydney’ for allegedly posting Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic content on social media.
Header image: Left, right, the man being arrested in Queensland (AFP).
