Two neo-Nazis have been charged for threatening federal MPs and another man arrested for targeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as the Australian Federal Police warns that threats against politicians have soared to almost 1000 a year.
In Victoria, former young Liberal and neo-Nazi Stefan Eracleous was charged on Friday with harassing independent senator Lidia Thorpe, allegedly stomping on an Indigenous flag at her office. The charge came a day after Joel Davis, a leader within the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network was arrested in NSW for allegedly calling on supporters to “rhetorically rape” independent MP Allegra Spender.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been targeted by online harassment. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
AFP acting assistant commissioner Matthew Gale on Friday said there had been 951 referrals of threats to federal parliamentarians in the last financial year, rising 63 per cent over the past four years, and it had turned into a “significant issue”.
Davis, 30, was charged with the threat to Spender after she condemned a neo-Nazi march on NSW parliament earlier this month.
Davis was refused bail by Sydney Local Court on Friday, deemed an unacceptable risk of further offending. The court heard Spender was concerned “for the safety of herself and her family”.
Separately, a 29-year-old man from northern NSW is alleged to have made online threats targeting Albanese, and will face court in January.
The AFP said officers seized a gel blaster rifle and ammunition during a raid on a Tamworth home last week, and the man has been charged with harassment as well as the unauthorised possession of a firearm and other weapons offences.
“We will allege the man used an online website portal to make threatening and harassing comments towards the high office holder,” Gale said.
“There are current and emerging individuals and groups who are eroding our country’s social fabric by advocating hatred, fear and humiliation, and the AFP, once again, is putting them on notice.”