The bomb threat that forced the evacuation of Anthony Albanese from The Lodge is the latest sign of a political climate growing steadily harsher, where threats are becoming more frequent, more visible and harder to dismiss as isolated incidents.
The prime minister was on Tuesday night whisked away from his official residence on Canberra’s Adelaide Avenue, which was later declared safe after a three-hour search by the Australian Federal Police found nothing suspicious. But the episode has sharpened concern about the broader rise in politically motivated hostility across the country.
According to The Epoch Times, an international news outlet with strong links to the Falun Gong religious movement, the threat appeared in an email sent in Mandarin to performers of a classical Chinese dance and music group banned by Beijing and currently touring Australia.
It warned that “large quantities of nitroglycerine” had been planted around Albanese’s official residence, vowing that “blood will flow” and the building would be “blown into ruins” unless scheduled performances by Shen Yun Performing Arts were scrapped.
While the threats appear designed to sabotage the troupe, police have not yet publicly identified the source of the email.
The AFP investigated 950 politically motivated threats in the 2024-25 financial year – a 63 per cent increase on the combined total of the previous four years – reinforcing intelligence warnings that the risk of political violence is likely to remain elevated.
Read the full article here
