Letters targeting independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman and former Greens leader Adam Bandt years ago have been reported for a second time to police, in connection to threats made to Lakemba Mosque.
Three letters containing hate speech and threats of violence have been sent to Australia’s largest mosque in recent weeks, including references to the Christchurch terror attack and racist language about Muslims, threatening to “burn them out”.
A spokesperson for NSW Police confirmed one letter sent to the mosque had been seized and is undergoing forensic examination.
The ABC has uncovered that similar letters targeting politicians were sent to branches of the Victorian Greens in 2022 and the NSW Greens in 2024.
Lidia Thorpe has received a number of threats since she was elected. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
In both cases the letters were reported to police, but no arrests were made in connection with the threats.
Similarities between the letters sent to the politicians and Lakemba Mosque are evident including the handwriting, distinctive swastikas, and the use of what appears to be a rifle bullet dipped in ink and used as a stamp.
The ABC has chosen not to publish the letters in full as they contain hate speech.
The letters sent to the Victorian Greens targeted Senator Thorpe, who was then part of the Greens, using racist slurs and threatening her and her family.
Letters targeting Adam Bandt and Fatima Payman years ago have been reported to police for a second time. (ABC News)
Senator Thorpe says she only became aware of the threats in the past week, as they were reported without her knowledge in 2023.
The Greens were approached for comment.
“The hurt is that I didn’t know about this, and the AFP and the government have known about threats on my life for so long,” Senator Thorpe said.
Senator Thorpe has received multiple threats against her life since entering politics but said the letters were among the most serious she had received.
“A lot of people have been charged, white supremacists and [National Socialist Network] members have been charged for threatening me, for using a carriage service. They’ve being raided, arrested.
The letters are marked with what appears to be a rifle bullet dipped in ink and used as a stamp. (ABC News)
“Why didn’t, this guy or person, why was he left to be a risk to the community?” she asked.
“Why wasn’t he charged back then? And why didn’t I know about this?”
The ABC understands these letters have now been reported again to the Australian Federal Police and are expected to be investigated alongside the Lakemba threats.
In 2024, a similar letter threatening to “kill Muslims” was sent to the NSW branch of the Greens, targeting the party’s former leader Adam Bandt and Senator Fatima Payman, who was formerly a Labor senator.
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The letter was opened by former Greens staffer Shane Bazzi, who said he reported the incident to police in 2024 and again to Crime Stoppers on Thursday.
Senator Payman told the ABC she had received additional threatening letters and emails from other sources in recent weeks, which had also been reported to the AFP.
“My office is pretty much bombarded with hate and death threats,” she said.
Referencing the alleged terror attack on January 26 targeting Indigenous Australians and allies, Senator Payman said she remained on high alert.
“With what happened recently here in WA, we have become more vigilant and I have a heart full of concerns for those who are visibly different, whether it be hijabi girls, Muslims praying, migrants going about their day, or Aboriginal people protesting colonisation,” she said.
Lakemba Mosque caretaker Gamel Kheir said he did not think New South Wales Police initially responded appropriately to the threats against the mosque.
“I genuinely believe that the police didn’t take it seriously,” Mr Kheir said.
“When we received our first letter in the mail, we had to put political pressure to get the police to respond.
Gamel Kheir wants politicians to do more to bring the Australian community together. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)
Mr Kheir questioned how seriously authorities, including elected officials, were taking “the rise of racism, bigotry, and hatred”.
NSW Police said in a statement it “takes hate crimes seriously and encourages anyone who is the victim of a hate crime or witnesses a hate crime to report the matter”.
The Australian Federal Police declined to answer questions from the ABC.
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Senator Thorpe said she would seek meetings with the government when parliament returned, including with Minister for Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly and Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy.
She said she wanted a response to her longstanding calls to implement the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework, which was handed to the government in November 2024.
Excerpts from the threatening letters sent to Lakemba Mosque and politicians bear resemblance. (ABC News)
Senator Thorpe also called on fellow politicians to take racist threats of violence against “black and brown” communities seriously and name “white supremacy” when it occurred.
“It is scary to think that it wasn’t taken seriously back then,” she said.
“What’s it going to take? Is it going to take, you know, someone actually taking me out or a massacre at a mosque?”
As Islam’s holy month of Ramadan gets underway, Mr Kheir said he wanted politicians to make more effort to bring the community together.
In the wake of One Nation’s rapid rise in opinion polls, Mr Kheir questioned the level of discourse politicians were engaging in around the Arab community.
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“Sadly, we live in a world where tolerance is at an all-time low and intolerance is at an all-time high,” he said.
“It’s not helpful when you have people like Senator Pauline Hanson, who sort of pours fuel on the fire. There is enough fire out there at the moment in terms of intolerance and bigotry.”
Senator Hanson faced criticism for inflammatory comments about Muslims earlier this week.
Mr Kheir said he was aware of Muslim community members receiving threats in their letterboxes, though he believed them to be from different sources because the handwriting was different.
“There is a way bigger issue than just arresting these individuals,” he said.
“How many of these letters are out there? How many people are too scared to even go to the police about it?”