MPs can now request a security upgrade of their Wellington homes following growing threats from anti-vax protestors.
The step-up from Parliamentary Security comes after Labour's chief whip Kieran McAnulty was the target of death threats.
A protester, former ad-man turned conspiracy theorist went live on Facebook during a confrontation with McAnulty, who later met with parliamentary security about safety.
He told Morning Report it wasn’t the confrontation itself that concerned him.
"It's those that appeared to watch it, and then get emboldened and then get in touch and they go one step further. That was the concern.
“Death threats towards the MPs is nothing new, but we should never become immune to this, and we should always take it seriously."
McAnulty said he wanted to get advice from parliamentary security about how credible the threats are.
"Whether they were just some keyboard warriors getting wound up or whether they were credible.
“When I met with parliamentary security yesterday, they were taking it seriously and so therefore, so should I."
He said it wasn’t just MPs that were copping it in the ear too.
“We've seen this toward journalists as well, and just members of the public that might be coming out in defense of this approach to keep people safe from Covid. I've seen various online discussions that have turned pretty threatening pretty quickly.
“We know that people say things online that they wouldn't dare say, face to face, but we can't sit back and be complacent and just put it back to someone that's just getting wound up online."
