Australia’s federal police commissioner has warned that heated political rhetoric is directly linked to a rise in violent threats against parliamentarians, as police investigate the mental health and political views of the man accused of attacking independent MP Helen Haines.
Krissy Barrett said authorities were being overwhelmed by serious threats to politicians, with one person a week charged with a criminal offence. Haines’s condition improved from critical to serious but stable after the alleged attack outside her office in north-east Victoria.
Speaking on ABC’s Insiders, Barrett said the language used by political leaders could produce an immediate change in the volume and character of threats received by MPs.
“It does have a direct correlation to what we see in terms of threats and abuse, and sometimes it’s very immediate,” she said.
Barrett was asked about a satirical One Nation cartoon depicting former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews being run over by a car. “We do see examples where there are particular announcements or things like you’ve just described, [where] there is a reaction,” she said.
She urged Australians to consider the consequences of such rhetoric, saying: “My hope is that this really causes people to pause and have a think about what’s happening in this country and the impact of that. And if this is not the incident [that causes change], then what is?”
Threats against female MPs
The AFP commissioner said the volume of threats had changed significantly since she began working for the force, when she helped assess handwritten messages sent to elected officials. She now often starts the day by reading a report several pages long detailing threats against MPs.
“These days, of course, you can sit behind a keyboard and you can bash out a threat or abuse very, very quickly,” Barrett said.
She said female parliamentarians were frequently targeted with threats of sexual violence. “We are not here to police free speech. We are not here to intervene in political discourse. But I would challenge any Australian to read some of these threats … and for anyone to argue that it is free speech or political discourse,” she said.
The investigation into Brendan Nugent, 43, is examining reports of mental ill health and “the causes or issues that he has aligned himself with”, Barrett said.
Nugent has posted online about logging and environmentalism and had more recently become focused on the war in Gaza, according to the material being examined by authorities. Investigators are also looking at his relationship with his father and stepmother, who are friends of Haines.
Politicians are due to return to Canberra on Monday, with much of the day set aside for tributes to Haines. The Labor government is also developing security measures aimed at improving protection for politicians.
Barrett separately warned that Australia’s drug consumption was helping to sustain organised crime and posed a national security risk.
“You are fuelling not just an organised crime environment, but it’s a national security threat,” she said, adding that authorities were seizing more drugs across the Pacific than ever before while prices in Australia remained high.
She also said large US technology companies should work more closely with authorities to tackle radicalism.
