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A Sydney<\/a> man has been charged with threatening to kill government minister Anika Wells and her family.<\/p>\n A 31-year-old Bankstown man allegedly sent two emails to Wells\u2019 office in late November making direct threats to kill her and members of her family.<\/p>\n The emails were referred by Wells\u2019 office to the Australian federal police\u2019s national security investigations team.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 imprisonment. He faced Bankstown court on Friday and was bailed to reappear on 23 December.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n The AFP\u2019s Det Supt Jeremy Staunton said the police had zero tolerance for threats and menacing behaviour towards elected officials.<\/p>\n \u201cFreedom of speech and political expression are keys to a healthy democracy, however threats towards politicians, and particularly their families, are taken extremely seriously,\u201d Staunton said.<\/p>\n \u201cPolice 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The national security investigations team is a new taskforce within the AFP, set up in September to \u201ctarget groups and individuals causing high levels of harm to Australia\u2019s social cohesion\u201d, including the targeting of federal parliamentarians.<\/p>\n The court did not hear details about the nature of, or motive behind, the threat against Wells.<\/p>\n Wells, the communications minister, is battling an expenses scandal over travel<\/a> 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\u2019 spending was within the rules, which allow for family reunion around ministerial duties.<\/p>\n The prime minister, however, has since sought advice from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority over a review of travel allowances for parliamentarians.<\/p>\n However, the emails allegedly sent to threaten Wells predate the expenses scandal breaking publicly.<\/p>\n As communications minister, Wells has had responsibility for Australia\u2019s world-leading, but controversial, social media ban<\/a>, which came into force on 10 December.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Wells\u2019 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<\/a>, during which time four people \u2013 including an eight-week-old baby \u2013 died. Subsequent failures, of old mobile phones being unable to make emergency calls<\/a>, have been linked to two deaths.<\/p>\n