Family First Leader Urges Australians to See Shen Yun After Prime Minister Bomb Scare

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Feb 27, 2026 - 10:58 Updated: Feb 27, 2026 - 10:50
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Family First Leader Urges Australians to See Shen Yun After Prime Minister Bomb Scare

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Family First’s National Director Lyle Shelton has called on Australians to see the classical dance performance Shen Yun after a fake bomb threat led to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being evacuated from his official residence.

Shelton said that while it was hard to link the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) directly to the incident, he said Beijing’s pattern of behaviour could not be ignored.

“Given the CCP’s long-running hostility to Shen Yun and its global campaign to silence critics, it is not wrong to suspect the regime or its sympathisers may be involved in bomb threat,” Shelton said in a statement. Family First is a well known political party with a focus on Christian values and family.

“The Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney, along with the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne, has issued public statements urging Australians not to attend Shen Yun performances.”

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Family First National Director Lyle Shelton attends the Australian Conservatives campaign launch at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort on the Gold Coast, Australia, on April 30, 2019. Richard Szabo/The Epoch Times
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Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and through the medium of classical Chinese dance, showcases 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation. Many artists are practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, which has suffered a severe persecution in China for nearly 27 years.

The Falun Dafa Information Center reports that Shen Yun has received over 130 death threats, bomb threats, or other methods of intimidation between 2022-24, ultimately aimed at stopping performances—no actual incidents have eventuated.

The latest incidents in Australia, saw two death threats delivered in Chinese to organisers, warning of violent harm and a potential bomb threat targeting the prime minister’s residence, The Lodge.

A day later, it was revealed the Gold Coast venue, the Home of the Arts (HOTA), also had to evacuate after it received a similar letter.

“This [Shen Yun] is the China the CCP does not want Australians to see—a rich cultural heritage that predates and contradicts communist ideology,” Shelton said.

“It is completely unacceptable for foreign diplomatic missions to pressure Australians about what cultural performances they should or should not attend,” he added.

Shelton called on Australians to turn out in “even greater numbers” to see the performance.

Shen Yun’s Australian presenters have urged the federal government to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the local incidents and protect against foreign interference.

“When threats extend to a nation’s elected leader, this is no longer solely a matter of religious freedom or artistic expression — it becomes a direct challenge to national sovereignty, democratic governance, and public safety,” said the Falun Dafa Australia Information Centre, in a statement.

“Such conduct mirrors patterns of transnational repression documented globally and warrants urgent attention at the highest levels of government.”

Shen Yun will perform on the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney.

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