Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from The Lodge in Canberra last night, just hours after speaking on a podcast hosted by Karl Stefanovic.
Just hours later, SBS broke the story that Mr Albanese had been evacuated from the residence after a security scare, with news.com.au reporting officials confirmed it was due to a possible bomb threat.
The incident sparked a significant police operation, and led to the prime minister being taken to a secret location for several hours.
Police first became aware of the threat at around 6pm on Tuesday night, with officers remaining for several hours after Mr Albanese was relocated.
The Australian Federal Police confirmed that at 6pm it responded to an “alleged security incident”.
“A thorough search of a protection establishment was undertaken and nothing suspicious was located,” the AFP said in a statement.
“There is no current threat to the community or public safety.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said: “We trust the AFP to do their jobs and thank them for their work.”
The AFP said it would release more details at a later time.
The Lodge is the official residence of the Australian prime minister in Canberra and is where Mr Albanese and Jodie Haydon were married in November.
Albanese speaks on Karl Stefanovic’s podcast
The podcast was filmed at The Lodge in a cozy setting of the two men reclining on large white armchairs.
The Today host asked about the prime minister’s decision to back the UK government’s historic legal move to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the royal line of succession.
Mr Albanese said he knows Australians are “disgusted” by the allegations about the former prince and his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The whole Epstein saga is just rather extraordinary, quite a fall from grace for someone who was known as Prince Andrew for such a long period of time,” Mr Albanese said.
Stefanovic added his opinion about Mountbatten-Windsor, describing him a “disgusting, feral pig”.