Sydney man charged with threatening to kill communications minister Anika Wells and her family
2025-12-13 01:51
A Sydney man has been charged with threatening to kill government minister Anika Wells and her family.
A 31-year-old Bankstown man allegedly sent two emails to Wells’ office in late November making direct threats to kill her and members of her family.
The emails were referred by Wells’ office to the Australian federal police’s national security investigations team.
AFP investigators linked the emails to the man, and he was arrested on Friday after a raid on a Bankstown home. His electronic devices were seized in the execution of a search warrant.
The man has been charged with one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. He faced Bankstown court on Friday and was bailed to reappear on 23 December.
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The AFP’s Det Supt Jeremy Staunton said the police had zero tolerance for threats and menacing behaviour towards elected officials.
“Freedom of speech and political expression are keys to a healthy democracy, however threats towards politicians, and particularly their families, are taken extremely seriously,” Staunton said.
“Police have the tools and resources to identify individuals or groups who seek to promote hate and fear within our community, even if they are hiding behind the anonymity of a keyboard or email account.”
The national security investigations team is a new taskforce within the AFP, set up in September to “target groups and individuals causing high levels of harm to Australia’s social cohesion”, including the targeting of federal parliamentarians.
The court did not hear details about the nature of, or motive behind, the threat against Wells.
Wells, the communications minister, is battling an expenses scandal over travel for her, her staff and family, including nearly $100,000 for flights to New York for a ministerial trip, and $1,389 for her husband and two young children to join her at Thredbo ski fields while she was there for a work event. She has been defended by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who said all of Wells’ spending was within the rules, which allow for family reunion around ministerial duties.
The prime minister, however, has since sought advice from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority over a review of travel allowances for parliamentarians.
However, the emails allegedly sent to threaten Wells predate the expenses scandal breaking publicly.
As communications minister, Wells has had responsibility for Australia’s world-leading, but controversial, social media ban, which came into force on 10 December.
The ban prohibits anyone under 16 in Australia from having an account on major social media platforms, including TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
Wells’ communications portfolio also has responsibility for recent triple-zero call failures. In September, an Optus network failure meant emergency calls were offline for nearly 14 hours, during which time four people – including an eight-week-old baby – died. Subsequent failures, of old mobile phones being unable to make emergency calls, have been linked to two deaths.