Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken to the ABC about the incident and, while stressing the motivation for the attack on Haines was not yet known, has made a number of comments about political discourse.
Asked if he had been worried that the elevated “temperature” could lead to physical harm, he said he’d expressed that concern publicly.
“I’ve expressed that concern to people in the media. The concern, if you look at anyone’s social media feeds and look at the comments, people will say things that they would never say face to face.
“But the temperature has undoubtedly been increased. Not just here in Australia, of course. We’ve seen incidents internationally as well.”
Albanese said that resources to counter politically motivated violence had been increased as agencies, including ASIO, had warned about the increasing risk.
Here in Australia, it is a good thing that politicians are able to go about their community and engage with people.
I don’t want to see a political system in which you can’t have conversations with people at the supermarket, in the street, at street meetings, public forums – that’s an important part of our democracy.
And someone like Helen Haines, of course, coming from that community, was someone who was out and about. I had the pleasure of spending time with Helen Haines in her local electorate, and I know that she’s very well regarded across the board.
She treats people with respect. She’s well regarded in the parliament as well, right across the political spectrum. And certainly, there’s no place for political violence in a democracy.
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