The Offence of Kidnapping in New South Wales

Far-right white nationalists and neo-Nazis were spitballing ideas around kidnapping Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, as well as blowing up mosques, in an online chatgroup in the immediate wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that saw fifteen murdered. And these discussions took place in a chatroom run by organisers of the antiimmigration 26 January 2026 March for Australia rallies.

The Herald broke the news of these threats on 25 January, noting that they’d been provided with copies of the exchanges that took place in chatroom on gaming platform Discord.

In the days after the online discussions were detected, NSW police then paid a visit to the premises of a Sydney neo-Nazi associate who’d made a social media post that too called for the kidnapping of Albanese, and detectives were then investigating whether the two episodes were linked.

NSW authorities report that extremist content is becoming a growing feature of far-right online chats. Swastikas, racist sentiment, jokes about rape and photographs of Australian white supremacist mass murderer Breton Tarrant are all doing the rounds on platforms like Discord. And these activities suggest that neo-Nazis hold sway over local white nationalists, rather than being a fringe element.

Ideas about bombings of mosques circulating in far-right chat environments post-Bondi involved far-right actors suggesting revenge attacks in response to the incident. Neo-Nazi group the Nationalist Socialist Network posted footage of the attack with recruitment messages on social media. However, the group has since disbanded after a prohibiting hate group framework was enacted federally.

The crimes of kidnapping

The offence of kidnapping is contained in section 86 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).

There are three forms of the offence of kidnapping with the basic form being contrary to subsection 86(1) of the Act. It carries up to 14 years imprisonment. To establish the offence, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was detained without their consent to hold them for ransom or to commit a serious indictable offence or in order to obtain an advantage.

If a child, or someone under the age of 16, has been detained, they are to be treated as if they have been taken without their consent. However, a person who has detained a child has not kidnapped them if they are the parent of the child or they have the consent of a parent of the child and they are not acting in contravention of a court order related to the child.

The aggravated, or more severe, form of the offence of kidnapping is contained in subsection 86(2) of the Crimes Act. This crime contains the same elements as the basic offence, however the offence is aggravated if the kidnapper was in company, or acted in accordance with at least one other person, or if the kidnapper causes actual bodily harm to the victim. This offence carries up to 20 years inside.

The third form of the crime is the specially aggravated offence of kidnapping, contrary to subsection 86(3) of the Crimes Act. It involves the elements of the basic crime, plus being in company when perpetrating the crime and causing the victim actual bodily harm. This most severe form of the offence carries a maximum penalty of up to 25 years gaol time.

The defences available to a charge of kidnap

There are a number of general legal defences that can apply to the offence of kidnapping that accompany the statutory defences contained in the section 86 offence, which involve the defences of having acted with the consent of a parent in detaining their child, or the defence of being the child’s parent on detaining them and further, not contravening a court order in acting in this manner.

The legal defence of self-defence contained in section 418 of the Crimes Act can be argued against a charge of kidnapping. Self-defence involves having perpetrated a crime in order to prevent an unlawful deprivation against oneself or someone else. Self-defence can also be argued when committing an illegal act in defence of one’s own property or to protect against criminal trespass.

The defence of duress is also available against a charge of kidnapping. Duress involves the accused arguing that their crime had been perpetrated in response to a threat that had been made against themselves or a love-one. The suggested harm posed by the threat must be serious enough to warrant the illegal action to prevent it.

Another general offence available to those charged with kidnapping is the defence of necessity, which involves a defendant arguing that they committed the criminal action that they’ve been charged with, in order to prevent more dire circumstances that would have eventuated if they had not broken the law to prevent that potential development.

Albanese is no push over

In response to a question put to him about the threats to kidnap him being made online by Insiders host David Speers, Albanese said, “Well, it’s the truth that the threats have increased and there have been a range of issues that we have had to deal with, including in the week after December 14. My focus is on keeping all Australians safe, not myself.”

“I trust the AFP and the authorities to do their task, and I’m absolutely determined to not be deterred from attending any event or engaging as prime minister with the Australian people,” he added.

“That’s an important characteristic of our democracy. The fact that after I last appeared on Insiders, I went and got some food for dog at the supermarket. That’s something that you can do here.”

In suggesting that he is not concerned about online threats being made to abduct him, Albanese is appealing to the long-term and pervasive idea that the continent of Australia is not a place where a sitting prime minister has to worry about being harmed by members of the public when dropping into a supermarket in order to feed their dog.

Although this concept appears to be changing. The Bondi massacre is the most prominent example of this, but so too are the attacks on Jewish owned properties over the 2024/25 summer, which were put down to organised criminals staging the acts, as well as the suggestion by ASIO that two of these incidents were actually the result of Iranian foreign interference.

“You can’t do it in other countries,” Albanese continued to say to Speers on Insiders, which is sentiment that many in the constituency hope continues to ring true in this country.

“But I’m very much focused on what do we need to do to keep Australians safe, and I’ll continue to focus on that.”