Australia has let abuse of its representatives become ‘part of the job’ – and women bear the brunt

0 October 21, 2026 01:42

The alleged attack on Helen Haines has renewed focus on MPs’ safety. More needs to be done to stop abuse and violence against public officials.

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Australians have been deeply shocked by the alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines that has left her in critical condition in hospital, and having lost a leg.

So far, two responses to the attack have emerged. First is a call, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to turn down the rhetorical temperature in Australia’s politics.

The second is renewed scrutiny on the security of MPs.

Both are reasonable immediate responses. But our research shows Australian elected officials from across federal, state and local government are absorbing a constant stream of abuse, threats, and violence.

To make matters worse, the responses to these threats are marked by a pervasive culture of threat normalisation – the idea that it’s “part of the job” – and an expectation of individual “resilience” and adaptation.

A healthy democracy?

Reports to the Australian Federal Police of harassing and threatening behaviour targeted at federal politicians and protected sites reached 1,067 in 2025-26 – almost double from four years earlier.

This pattern repeats across political jurisdictions. In a 2023 study of Victorian state MPs, 82% reported harassment and 85% harmful threats. Surveys of Victorian and Tasmanian councillors found roughly four in five had experienced intimidation or abuse.

Our own national study of local government elected officials, currently under way, has generated similar initial findings. We have surveyed 854 councillors and conducted 73 in-depth interviews in 2026.

We found 85% of surveyed councillors had faced some form of abuse, threats, or violence in the past year. Local councillors are the most accessible elected representatives, and what happens to them is instructive for all levels of government.

The violence beneath the surface

Severe violence justifiably commands our attention, but it can also obscure where much of the damage is done. ASIO chief Mike Burgess this week warned of a “permissive environment of violence”.

Our data show how it is experienced by those being harmed. Of those councillors who reported attempted or actual physical violence against them or their families, more than 90% had also faced abuse and threats.

Violence towards politicians exists atop a foundation of everyday, cumulative hostility. That foundation is both a warning sign for Australian democracy, but also a harm in itself.

The burden of violence and abuse is also unevenly shared. Women in the study of Victorian MPs were more likely to experience harassment and threats. In our ongoing study, nearly half of women councillors had faced gender-based harassment, compared to 13% of men.

Part of the job?

Abuse and violence towards representatives are increasingly treated as an occupational hazard. In the United Kingdom, a multiparty speaker’s conference reported a quarter of MPs had normalised the abuse they receive – and that some police seemed to expect MPs to put up with it.

Among councillors we surveyed, the normalisation of abuse and violence is already widely entrenched. Almost two-thirds have come to accept some abuse is unavoidable, while 67% agreed there is a general expectation that abuse is tolerated in local government. This acceptance rises with exposure to abuse and violence – the more an elected official experiences it, the more likely they consider it to be inevitable.

This might account for why much of this abuse goes unreported. Among councillors who described their most serious incident, only 18% told police. Of the incidents they rated as severe, just 37% were reported to police. Given this pattern, it is likely AFP reports underestimate the prevalence of abuse and threats to federal parliamentarians.

The democratic cost

A democracy can appear resilient while its foundations erode. In the case of political abuse and violence, the system keeps working because individuals absorb the cost. But there are breaking points.

In the UK, some MPs have reduced or stopped holding in-person community meetings.

Roughly 40% of MPs answering the speaker’s conference survey, either hesitated or abstained from expressing opinions on policy matters. Swedish research finds women politicians are more likely to avoid publicity or speaking on contentious topics because of threats, narrowing the diversity of voices in public debate.

In our study, 69% of elected officials who had described their most serious incident reported that they had changed how they represented their communities. One third had reduced public engagement, 22% had avoided public positions on controversial issues, and 29% had increased security in their role.

Each choice at the individual level is reasonable. But together, they make representatives harder to reach, and potentially less responsive. Longer term, 61% said abuse has influenced their decision to stand again for election.

Increasing politicians’ security is important but not a solution. The UK conference found that an escalating security response would reduce the quality of public engagement with their representatives – and that the priority must be on reducing the threat.

Read more:
Anti-government violence is growing. The response needs to be more than just increased policing

Visibility and access

Federal MPs are among the best protected in the country. This week has shown the limits of that protection. Haines was beside her car, outside of her electorate office on a main street – where many regional voters might expect to find their representative. No security can make such a representative entirely unreachable, and few of us would want it to.

State politicians and local government councillors do similar work with less security. Local government councillors especially do not have access to AFP’s protection teams.

Councillors we surveyed are sceptical of a response based on increased security and individual resilience. Asked which measures would be most effective in reducing abuse and violence, 64% wanted stronger legal consequences for perpetrators, 63% stronger accountability for social media platforms, and 44% wanted political leaders to model respectful debate. Representatives wish for the conditions to change, not for help coping with them.

More than turning down the temperature

Turning down the political temperature does matter – and it can start with politicians. Representatives are not just targets, but frequent perpetrators. Two in five councillors in our study had been abused by an elected colleague. Last week, a Liberal frontbencher told federal parliament that the prime minister and Minister Anne Aly should be “shamed and stoned in the square”. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher suggests standards in parliament have slipped across parties. How representatives speak about each other models to the public what is acceptable and what is not.

But a call for civility, on its own, spreads responsibility so widely that it risks becoming meaningless. The challenge is in process and institutions: acting on abuse before it escalates, protecting representatives without removing public access, holding technology platforms to account, and refusing, across all levels of government, to accept abuse and violence as part of the job.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Tags: Academic Journalism, The Conversation, The Conversation Academic News