Anne Aly says she received 19 death threats after MP's stoning remarks

AFP recorded more than 60% rise in threats against politicians over four years

Australian Small Business Minister Anne Aly publicly disclosed Tuesday that she received 19 death threats on social media in the past week, responding in an Instagram video to remarks in parliament calling for her to be “shamed and stoned in the square.”

“I don’t usually comment about these sorts of things, but I feel like I have to,” Aly said. “This past week alone, I’ve had 19 death threats on my social media. And in the past I’ve had death threats that are couched in that exact same language: stone her.”

Gold Coast Liberal National MP Angie Bell, the member for Moncrieff, made the remarks before question time Tuesday as part of an opposition attack on the government over the Australian Taxation Office’s decision to ban credit card payments used to pay tax bills. Bell argued that millions of Australians employed by small businesses would be harmed. “This minister and this prime minister should be absolutely shamed and stoned in the square,” she told the House of Representatives.

Bell was forced by the speaker to withdraw the comments after Burke, the government’s leader of the house, raised concerns with what he described as “physically violent imagery.”

In her video, Aly described the remarks as fundamentally hostile to Australian values. “We are a country that proudly stands against violence against women and against regimes that use brutal methods like stoning against women,” she said. “This is not just something that we should just turn away from. It is racist. It is misogynistic. And it is something that should never have been said.”

Australia, like other liberal democracies, has experienced a documented rise in threats against politicians and other public figures. More than 50 police reports on a range of alleged criminal offences were filed during the last federal election campaign, according to figures cited by The Guardian. The Australian Federal Police received 951 referrals or threats against parliamentarians in the 2024-25 financial year — an increase of more than 60% in just four years.

Former AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw told Senate estimates last year that female politicians were particular targets. “The nature of threats and comments directed at female parliamentarians and high officeholders is particularly troubling, with a common feature being offensive material centred on derogatory language about their appearance,” Kershaw said.

“Some of this material also contains extremely violent themes, including threats of graphic, sexual violence,” he added, noting that “these threats, which are being made online or are being sent in the post or over the phone, are sometimes also directed at their children.”

Kershaw said politicians were targeted because of their public profiles or their policy positions, but added: “However, in some cases, it appears male offenders are targeting women because they are women. The AFP will not tolerate this criminality and will take swift action.”