A lack of housing and Australia's immigration policies prompted a young man to threaten to kill the prime minister and the NSW premier on social media, a court has been told.

Will James King, 20, was sentenced on Friday to seven months' imprisonment, conditionally suspended for 12 months, for sending the threat in a direct message to Chris Minns' Instagram account in January.

"You're a Jew, not a real Semite," the message read out in Mandurah Magistrates Court on Friday said.

"You're an Ashkenazi Jew. Anti-Semitism does not apply to you or to any other Jews. You're the Gentiles.

"I'll assassinate you and Albo, and the country will be a better place."

Defence lawyer Tendayi Chivunga said King was triggered by the state of housing and immigration issues, and had been reading political articles and online comments before he sent the messages.

King's actions were hyperbolic, rage-filled venting using his keyboard in frustration over his powerlessness, and he had no intent to carry out the threat, she said, quoting a psychological report.

The "difficult political climate" following the murderous Bondi Beach shootings and the tough economic situation facing young Australians also gave context to his offending, Ms Chivunga said.

"This was an emotional and immature outburst," she said about her client who had previously pleaded guilty to making the threat.

Magistrate Clare Cullen said King had engaged in anti-Semitic hate speech, and his words had historically been used to spread hostility, prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people.

"Anti-Semitism and any form of hate speech stand in opposition to the Australian values of respect, fairness, and liberty," she said.

"Hate speech, coupled with the word assassinate in your message, conveyed a meaning of sinister intent, and your words were uttered at the time of heightened social unrest."

Parliamentarians have a right to serve the community without being subject to threats of violence and intimidation.

"The ability for our politicians to carry out their duties is of prime importance to a well-functioning, democratic society, and the courts regard attacks on those in public office as a grave breach of the law," Ms Cullen said.

King, an unemployed construction worker, was disconnected from the words written on a screen and the real world, the court heard.

"The cowardice of keyboard warriors is all too common in modern-day life," Ms Cullen said.

"This mentality that you can say what you want when you want, regardless of harm and distress that it causes ... cannot be tolerated."

Ms Cullen noted the Australian Federal Police had recorded a 42 per cent increase in December 2024 in incidents involving harassment and threatening communications against politicians from the year prior.

"The message is not getting out there," she said.

Detectives from WA's State Security Investigations team went to King's Mandurah home, about 70km south of Perth, soon after he made the post and arrested him.

King told them he didn't mean the message to be a threat.