OCTOBER 20, 2026 09:25

Australian legislators and security officials have worked to calm political discourse and flagged rising dangers to public figures since 2021, when anti-lockdown demonstrators hung an effigy of a state leader from a temporary gallows in Melbourne.

Those concerns intensified on Monday after a man drove a vehicle into independent lower-house member Helen Haines outside her office, causing severe injuries that included the amputation of one leg, with doctors still fighting to preserve the other, according to media and government statements.

Authorities have not yet identified a motive for the incident at Haines's regional office in Wangaratta, roughly 240 km from Melbourne.

"We have witnessed a degree of hate, disrespect and intolerance in political debate that was once uncommon," Health Minister Mark Butler told Channel Nine's Today Show.

His comments reflect broader discussion about increasingly hostile political exchanges in a nation long accustomed to ready access to elected representatives who typically reside in their districts with limited protection.

Threats of violence to politicians were "increasing, not decreasing," said Bridget McKenzie, a senator from the opposition Nationals who has an office in Haines's electorate.

"Everybody, no matter where they come from in parliament, left or right, is doing their very, very best to make our country the best. We disagree on the way to do it."

Threats to lawmakers are on the rise

As many as 85% of federal lawmakers and their staffers had experienced violent, threatening or volatile behavior, a 2025 parliamentary report showed, calling for more consistent security arrangements.

The incidents occurred more than once a month, said nearly half of the respondents cited in the report, who described assaults, spitting, threats, intimidation and objects thrown at them.

"You worry about your family, you worry about the impact of this on whether you can actually continue to do your job," said Lisa Phillips, a psychological sciences professor at Melbourne University who published a 2023 paper on threats to members of the Victorian state parliament.

"It's distressing," added Phillips, whose paper found 85% of state lawmakers had made lifestyle changes after threats of harm, with female politicians more likely to be abused than men.

The warnings stretch back years.

'Volatile' security environment

In 2021, Mike Burgess, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, warned of "considerable volatility" in security stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Such conditions fueled grievance-driven extremism and heightened the risk of lone-actor violence, Burgess added.

Australian politicians were spurred to openly discuss their own vulnerability seven months later, when British MP David Amess was fatally stabbed while meeting constituents.

By 2024, there was a surge in reports of threats, harassment and offensive communications targeting federal politicians.

Politically motivated violence was "flashing red," Burgess said in 2025, stepping up his warning.

In February, a bomb threat prompted the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from his official residence, while small businesses minister Anne Aly said she had received 19 death threats in a single week.

Australian Federal Police figures showed 1,067 reports of threats, harassment, nuisance or offensive behavior against parliamentarians, senior officeholders and protected locations in the latest financial year. That was up 12% on the prior year and double the figure from five years earlier.

"ASIO has seen direct correlations between inflamed language, inflamed tensions and acts of violence," Burgess said on Tuesday.

"The temperature of our security environment would be several degrees lower if we recommitted to conversing with civility, debating with respect and disagreeing with restraint."