PM evacuated from the Lodge over security threat

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been forced to evacuate from the Lodge, his residence in Canberra, while police searched the premises following a security threat.

Albanese was only able to return to the heavily fortified house near parliament after 9pm, three hours after the threat first emerged.

The nature of the threat has not been made public.
A federal police spokeswoman said they responded to “an alleged security incident” at 6pm.

“A thorough search of a protection establishment has commenced and is still ongoing,” she said.

“There is no current threat to the community or public safety.“

Government sources said the threat was probably not real. But given the rise in extremism and violent threats towards MPs, police were obliged to take it seriously.

The AFP received 951 referrals or threats against parliamentarians in the 2024-25 financial year, rising 63 per cent over the past four years.

Both ASIO chief Mike Burgess and former AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw have recently highlighted the increasing risks to politicians. Kershaw told a Senate Estimates committee last year that “the politicians who’ve been targeted are across the political spectrum, live throughout Australia and are of different backgrounds”.

The prime minister has consistently called for political actors and citizens to “lower the temperature” of debate, particularly on divisive issues such as migration, race and the conflict in Gaza.