AFP commissioner said threats against parliamentarians doubled over three years
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Monday that police data showed more than 1,000 threats against Australian politicians in the 2025-2026 financial year. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in 2025 that threats against parliamentarians had doubled over the past three years.
Federal independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, was critically injured Monday when a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV struck her outside her electoral district office mid-afternoon in Wangaratta, in Victoria state, police said. Haines, who was first elected to Parliament in 2019, was taken to a hospital with critical injuries. A passerby arrested the 43-year-old driver at the scene, police said. “A knife was located by police and seized from inside the Toyota,” police said. The driver will be interviewed in relation to the incident.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.: “This wasn’t an accident. There was a deliberate act, it would appear. We don’t know what the motivation is.” He said Australia’s national counterterrorism team, incorporating police and intelligence agencies, was investigating. “At this stage, police are investigating as to whether this was an intentional act,” police said.
The episode has renewed safety concerns for Australian lawmakers, in a country where politicians have historically been highly accessible to the public and usually go about their business without security officers present. But public incitement against officials is growing.
Albanese told the ABC it was “unfortunate” that an increasingly polarized political climate had already led to security changes for Australia’s lawmakers. “I think there has been a rise in temperature and there has been too much shouting, not enough discourse, not enough polite conversation and disagreement,” he said Monday. There was “no question” that social media played a part, Albanese added.
In Britain, murders of politicians have prompted bolstered security. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, and Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group. In July, the former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was found slain with a hammer at her home. A man has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses.