Earlier this year Albanese himself was evacuated from his official residence over a bomb threat. As of August, about 20 cases in which people were accused of making violent threats against him were winding their way through courts around the country.
In recent years, politicians here have been mailed bullets. Female MPs – and in some cases their children – have been threatened with sexual violence. A Jewish MP’s office has been firebombed, a Sydney mayor’s car has been torched and countless other politicians have had their workplaces vandalised.
Just last week Small Business Minister Anne Aly said she had received a wave of death threats after a politician from the opposition said she should be “shamed and stoned in the square” over a tax policy.
According to government statistics, there were 1,067 reports of “harassing and threatening behaviour” against “high office holders” in the year to June: an increase on last year.
“We tend to bury our head in the sand and say, ‘Not here’, but this has been happening now for well over a decade,” Josh Roose, a Deakin University Professor on violent extremism, tells the BBC.
Socioeconomic strain, growing mental health problems in the community, “grifters” who benefit politically or financially from whipping up further discontent, and a “carcinogenic” online environment are drivers of the trend, he says, which has dramatically escalated since the pandemic.
But the political class must also take responsibility for their role, he adds.
“We’ve seen a willingness to cross previously sacred terrain – you know, not targeting individuals, not targeting their families – but we now see that this is part and parcel of Australian political life.
“This is occurring at both ends of the political spectrum.”
And experts like him warn it is not just politicians who are vulnerable: it is members of the media, academics, court officials and other public figures too.
