Federal Minister receives 19 death threats after MP calls for her to be ‘shamed and stoned’

Federal Labor Minister Anne Aly has revealed she has received 19 death threats in the past week after a fellow parliamentarian called for her to be “shamed and stoned”.

The Small Business Minister called out the remark Liberal National Party MP Angie Bell made against Aly and Anthony Albanese over the ATO credit card ban during question time in parliament on Tuesday.

“I don’t usually comment about these things, but I feel like I have to. This past week alone I’ve had 19 death threats on my social media,” she said in a social media post on Tuesday.

Aly said the same language, including the phrase “stone her”, had been used in death threats against her in the past.

As the first Muslim woman to be elected to federal parliament in 2016, she said the remark was “racist”, “misogynistic” and “should never have been said”.

“It’s not just something that a parliamentarian shouldn’t say in terms of advocating violence against another parliamentarian. It is something that stands against our Australian values,” she said.

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“We are a country that proudly stands against violence against women, and against regimes that use brutal methods like stoning against women, this is not just something that we should just turn away from.”

Bell had been criticising the federal government over the Australian Tax Office’s ban on credit card payments despite it negotiating a delay until the end of the financial year.

At the end of her remarks, she said Aly and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “should be absolutely shamed and stoned in the square”.

Bell was ordered to withdraw her comments and complied after Leader of the House Tony Burke raised issue with what he said was “some physically violent imagery”.

In a statement, Bell said it had been “a poor choice of words in the heat of the moment”.

“The small business minister is deflecting from what’s most important and that is the plight of small businesses across our nation who are being forced to manage higher taxes, growing costs, and declining revenues,” she said.

Bell’s Coalition colleagues, led by her boss Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, came to her defence on Wednesday.

Taylor said Aly “shouldn’t distract from her failures”.

“She’s failed on the ban for credit cards for the tax office. How did that happen?” he told reporters.

“It’s clear the prime minister stepped in and overrode the treasurer and the small business minister, but she should not distract from her failure as a small business minister.

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“She should have been fighting for small businesses, and she wasn’t. And attempting to distract from that – seriously.”

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson told Aly to “just calm down”.

“They’re just words that are in the heat of the moment,” she told reporters.

“I think everyone just calm down, all right? I’ve been dealing with this for many, many years. Just calm down.”

Last year, then-Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said threats of violence against parliamentarians were rising across the political spectrum.

The 2025 federal election saw a reported 17 per cent increase in threats to MPs and candidates.