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Four people have been arrested by federal “hate disruptor” squads over threats against politicians and an embassy in just a month – while a NSW country town has been bombarded with flyers calling for “remigration”, the newest far-right code word for ethnic cleansing.
The Australian Federal Police’s National Security Investigations (NSI) team on Saturday arrested two men – one each in Western Australia and Queensland – over unconnected threats to parliamentarians.
Police allegedly linked a 47-year-old man, from Bayswater in Perth, to a social media post about killing a politician, and searched his home on Friday.
The man was charged with two counts of using a carriage service to make a threat to kill or cause serious harm, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.
He is scheduled to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on August 21.
A second investigation launched earlier this month by the NSI tracked threatening voice messages sent to parliamentarians to a 57-year-old man from Coomera, on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Police raided his home on Thursday and allegedly found evidence on his phone. He was charged with threatening a public official and will appear in court on August 17 in Southport.
The NSI teams, established last October, were dubbed “flying hate disruptors” by AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett.
“History has taught us, and recent events have reinforced, that hatred creates a permissive environment that can lead to violent extremism and terrorism,” Barrett said in December.
“There are groups and individuals across Australia who are eroding the country’s social fabric by advocating hatred, fear, and humiliation.”
Both the AFP and NSW Police are still hunting a prolific, serial letter writer whose threats have menaced politicians for a decade.
“Scorpio” or “BuLLiT” is believed to be a Caucasian man in his 60s and has written more than 100 letters.
He often signs them with a stamp made from red and black ink daubed on the rear of a Winchester bullet casing.
Authorities released screenshots of Scorpio’s letters on June 30, saying they were closing in on the author, but so far have yet to make any arrests.
The NSI squads, earlier this month, charged a 47-year-old man from the Sydney suburb of Colyton over a bomb hoax made to a foreign embassy.
A search on July 9 allegedly uncovered methamphetamine and a phone.
That same day, the NSI raided a home in Woolgoolga, near Coffs Harbour in the state’s north, after threats to another federal parliamentarian.
A 53-year-old man was charged over the alleged menacing threats on social media.
“Public officials deserve the ability to carry out their duties without facing the threat of harm,” AFP acting Inspector Fleur Jennings said on Saturday.
“The AFP has the resources and technology to locate and identify offenders who threaten parliamentarians and high office holders and bring them before the courts.”
Joint Counterterrorism Teams, also in July, had two men front court after separate investigations over violent extremist material.
A 51-year-old man allegedly shared violent videos and propaganda from Islamic terror groups from his home in Pacific Pines, Queensland.
A second man, aged 19, was charged as part of that investigation and bailed.
A 20-year-old man, from NSW north, also appeared in court on charges of advocating terrorism after the terror squads allegedly found online posts advocating for terrorism, along with weapons and ammunition.
Political extremism has become a major public priority for law enforcement and politicians since the attacks on Bondi Beach in December.
The NSI squads alone had charged 14 individuals in the two months leading up to the attack.
Last week, Hunter MP Dan Repacholi denounced “racist bullshit” flyers handed out calling for Indian Australians to be removed from the town of Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley.
“We have already seen local doctors abused and targeted with racist comments. Now cowards are spreading this hateful rubbish through our community,” Repacholi wrote online.
The flyer, handed out by a Sydney-based white nationalist political movement, was drumming up support for a “remigration rally” in September.
Remigration is a far-right code word for ethnic cleansing by forcibly deporting people who are not white from countries with European heritage.
Remigration, which has its roots in the displacement of Jews after the second World War, became a lightning rod in European and American politics since 2023.
Activists in those countries advocate even for naturalised citizens, or people born in traditionally white nations, to be expelled to their ancestral homelands.
The pamphlets in Kurri Kurri were distributed by a group which accepts “European stock only” members.
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