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The crazies threatening Australian politicians from every side · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Turn the temperature down. That's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the refrain from Anthony Albanese as independent MP Helen Haynes
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  Speaker 1: battles to survive injuries sustained in a shocking vehicle attack.
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  Speaker 1: But what does that actually mean? What did Haynes' alleged
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  Speaker 1: attacker believe in? Can we draw reason and meaning from
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  Speaker 1: online rants or a grab bag of grievances? And even
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  Speaker 1: if we can, how does it help us? And when
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  Speaker 1: the target of political violence is a mild-mannered grandma from
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  Speaker 1: the country, how do we find optimism? Today, political editor
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers joins us to think through all these big ideas.
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  Speaker 1: Breaking news from Wangaratta. Federal Independent MP Helen Haynes has
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  Speaker 1: been struck by a car outside of her electorate office.
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  Speaker 1: A horrific attack that's left much-loved Independent MP Helen Haynes
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  Speaker 1: fighting for life. Multiple sources have now confirmed that Helen
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  Speaker 1: Haynes has had a leg amputated in hospital.
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  Speaker 2: Helen Haynes remains in a critical condition, having undergone surgery
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  Speaker 2: and losing her leg.
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  Speaker 1: Geoff Chambers is the Australian's political editor. Geoff, tell me
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  Speaker 1: about Helen Haynes. Had you had much to do with her?
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  Speaker 2: Look, Helen Haynes was one of the original Climate 200
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  Speaker 2: independent MPs. And Indi had a very rich history with
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  Speaker 2: independence with Cathy McGowan in regional Victoria. And Helen, hands down,
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  Speaker 2: is one of the loveliest ladies here. One of the
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  Speaker 2: most non-offensive, has a nursing background. and has just thoroughly
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  Speaker 2: loved both in this building and at a regional level.
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  Speaker 2: And we've seen that with her consistent performances in Indi,
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  Speaker 2: which at one point in time was a Liberal seat.
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  Speaker 2: So very hardworking MP, and everyone was just in absolute
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  Speaker 2: shock at what happened on Monday afternoon at the front
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  Speaker 2: of her electorate office in Wangaratta. It's, I guess, really
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  Speaker 2: brought home what a lot of them had been fearing.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of them received threats via different channels, but
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  Speaker 2: I think a lot of them probably would have thought
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  Speaker 2: out there in a regional part of the country, where
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  Speaker 2: in fact, in Helen's electorate is where Desi Freeman resided.
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  Speaker 2: And we talk about cookers and anti-authoritarian types living these
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  Speaker 2: types of unpredictable lives by themselves, loners. In fact, they
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  Speaker 2: could be more at risk than others.
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  Speaker 1: She seems like Australia's Nana, this lovely, gentle lady, grew
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  Speaker 1: up on a dairy farm, running a property with her husband, Philip,
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  Speaker 1: celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary, mum of three, but also
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  Speaker 1: like a really eminent senior nursing academic, very experienced nurse,
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  Speaker 1: has a PhD in medical science. If someone like Helen
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  Speaker 1: Haynes can be the target of political violence, or if
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  Speaker 1: she is the ultimate target of political violence, it's really
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  Speaker 1: hard to feel optimistic that things are getting better in
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  Speaker 1: Australia or that we have a kind of civil discourse,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. And in a way, she's like the perfect
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  Speaker 2: type of MP. She's had a life, she's had a
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  Speaker 2: full career, and then she's giving back to give that
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  Speaker 2: public service. And as much as there are security measures
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  Speaker 2: that are in place, they're extra careful, particularly post-pandemic, post-voice referendum,
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  Speaker 2: post all the social media, conspiracy, propaganda, all that kind
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  Speaker 2: of information, people feeling less trust in their politicians. It's
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  Speaker 2: a combination of all of these things where the targeting
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  Speaker 2: of Helen Haynes really shows that it doesn't matter if
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  Speaker 2: you're a federal MP, doesn't matter what party you're from,
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  Speaker 2: doesn't matter what gender you are. You could be a
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  Speaker 2: state MP or a local councillor. You could be a judge.
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  Speaker 2: You could be a family member of a public official. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: there are a lot of threats flying around. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of those threats don't necessarily come to physical violence. But
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  Speaker 2: if anyone has been reading the tea leaves of what
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  Speaker 2: the ASIO and AFP chiefs have been saying in recent years,
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  Speaker 2: it was really clear that at some point, Australia was
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  Speaker 2: not immune to political assassinations, which this country has seen,
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  Speaker 2: but very, very rarely. We've seen it around the world,
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  Speaker 2: but it could come in many different forms. And unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: we saw the scenes that we saw on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: Brendan Nugent, the 43-year-old local man who is alleged to
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  Speaker 1: have been her attacker, the person who drove into her
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  Speaker 1: multiple times in his four-wheel drive, leaving her pinned and
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  Speaker 1: rescuers having to help her out so that she could
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  Speaker 1: be flown to hospital. When you look at his social
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  Speaker 1: media feed, it's kind of a grab bag of grievances.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he's talking about logging. He's talking about Gaza.
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  Speaker 1: He's having a crack at Penny Wong. During the bushfire time,
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  Speaker 1: he's having a go at Mark Butler. And Joel Fitzgibbon,
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  Speaker 1: Labor MPs, even though they weren't in government, about why
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  Speaker 1: they weren't doing more about climate change. He's also complaining
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  Speaker 1: that he can't get onto the NDIS or that he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have secure housing despite having a disability. I know
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  Speaker 1: he's being already characterised as a far lefty. And of course,
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  Speaker 1: he has a right to defend any charges that are
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  Speaker 1: going to be laid and he's not being convicted of anything.
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  Speaker 1: But I find that an interesting characterisation. It seems like
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  Speaker 1: it's more than just being a lefty that is evident
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  Speaker 1: there in his social media presence at least. What do
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  Speaker 1: you think?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so what the security guys call it is mixed
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  Speaker 2: ideologies and this is making it really difficult. So if
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  Speaker 2: you're an ASIO, AFP or a state police force, you're
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  Speaker 2: getting a deluge of different people making different threats, making
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  Speaker 2: different claims and you're trying to work out methodically how
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  Speaker 2: break down pseudonyms as well. But you're trying to figure
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  Speaker 2: out who actually poses a threat and what is their ideology?
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  Speaker 2: Because on this bloke's Twitter account, X account, there is,
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  Speaker 2: as you say, varying opinions on things. Some might say
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  Speaker 2: they're extreme, but others might say this bloke looks like
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  Speaker 2: he's pretty engaged on some of these issues and has
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  Speaker 2: his positions on things. I did see another one there
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  Speaker 2: around satanic cults and police officers. So is this guy anti-authoritarian?
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  Speaker 2: Does he have a personal gripe? Quite often, whether you're
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  Speaker 2: going through a family law issue or an NDIS thing,
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  Speaker 2: you then fixate on your local federal MP and you
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  Speaker 2: take out whatever problems you might have with them. They're
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  Speaker 2: still going through his profile. They're still gathering evidence. The
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  Speaker 2: information is that he was potentially under heavy influence. So
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  Speaker 2: I suspect they're going to have to wait to complete
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  Speaker 2: those interviews with this person. But they'd be forming a
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  Speaker 2: pretty good opinion now from what they're collecting through his vehicle,
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  Speaker 2: at his house, on his phone. in terms of who
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  Speaker 2: he is. But I think this goes to the point
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  Speaker 2: of how challenging it is, because you just don't really
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  Speaker 2: know who are they targeting and what's influencing them and
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  Speaker 2: motivating them.
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanese keeps saying, take the temperature down. He's been
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  Speaker 1: saying it for a very long time now.
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  Speaker 2: Call for the temperature to be turned down when it
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  Speaker 2: comes to political discourse.
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  Speaker 1: I find it really annoying, Geoff, to hear that. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know whether it's just that it feels a
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  Speaker 1: bit gully, but feels like something that the principal might
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  Speaker 1: say to the year seven class after they've been naughty
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  Speaker 1: at lunchtime, or that it seems to apply to everything
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  Speaker 1: from like, don't shoot Jewish people with a semi-automatic weapon
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  Speaker 1: to don't run Helen Haynes over. Like, you know, what
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  Speaker 1: is he actually talking about? Is this a code for something?
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  Speaker 1: Is he actually talking about someone in particular?
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  Speaker 2: I think the prime minister needs to add some detail
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  Speaker 2: on what are very vague statements. And you're absolutely right.
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  Speaker 2: Every time we get a major incident in this country,
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  Speaker 2: he brings us back to this catchphrase around turning down
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  Speaker 2: the temperature, lowering the discourse. And he name checks the
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  Speaker 2: media on that. Some would argue that himself and his
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  Speaker 2: own government, going back to the days of the Morrison government,
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  Speaker 2: that they were themselves launching some very serious vitriol and rhetoric,
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  Speaker 2: which really drove divisions across society. Some would say that
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  Speaker 2: the voice referendum drove divisions in society. So we've spoken
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  Speaker 2: with several former leaders who including Bob Carr, Jeff Kennett,
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  Speaker 2: and John Howard, they've all got varying opinions around it,
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  Speaker 2: but ultimately they don't feel like the public political debate
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  Speaker 2: is any hotter than when they were in power. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the caveat on that, and John Howard also says it's not,
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  Speaker 2: you can't necessarily compare generational, you know, how hot different
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  Speaker 2: generations were in terms of politics. The difference with this
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  Speaker 2: is the amplification of social media. Hmm. And I think
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  Speaker 2: it's important as we move forward, because unfortunately, we may
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  Speaker 2: well see some more serious incidents. And at the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, the most serious caseload that ASIO and
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  Speaker 2: the AFP watch remains Sunni Islamic extremists. They are the
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  Speaker 2: most serious. And then you've got these left-wing extremists that
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  Speaker 2: Mike Burgess has specifically warned about alongside right-wing, alongside anti-authoritarian.
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  Speaker 2: And then we talk about lone wolf attacks. So I
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  Speaker 2: think it's important that we don't simplify this down. And
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  Speaker 2: I think there are some people out there who are
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  Speaker 2: already frustrated with politicians and the major parties. We're seeing
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  Speaker 2: this in the polls, who would say, well, you're going
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  Speaker 2: after social media. Are you going after free speech? And
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  Speaker 2: I think the threshold on that is a criminal threshold,
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  Speaker 2: which is actually a very high threshold. I think that
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  Speaker 2: should be looked at. But if someone's inciting violence or
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  Speaker 2: they break the law, I think that works to actively
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  Speaker 2: undermine democracy. And undermine free speech. So there are thresholds,
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  Speaker 2: I think.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's almost like if you put your toe
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  Speaker 1: in the water a little bit and maybe threaten to
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  Speaker 1: rape an MP or say, oh, you should be dead
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  Speaker 1: or you should kill yourself on social media and then
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  Speaker 1: nothing happens to you, the police don't come knocking at
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  Speaker 1: your door and take you away. And of course, in Australia,
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  Speaker 1: that is not happening. Then maybe you kind of think
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  Speaker 1: that that's okay and the bar gets raised. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think that that is what's going on? There's a role
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  Speaker 1: here for kind of the social media platforms to actually
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  Speaker 1: be suppressing that kind of language?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so challenging because it's so loud and fierce.
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  Speaker 2: So much of these platforms increasingly rely on that very
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  Speaker 2: schism and that split on the right and the left.
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  Speaker 2: It's that opinion and that exchanging of ideas. The thought
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  Speaker 2: that social media is purely a sharing of family photos
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  Speaker 2: and positive affirmations is just not true. But how far
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  Speaker 2: can you go to stop it? We've seen some other
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  Speaker 2: countries try. We've seen people out there rallying against it.
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  Speaker 2: This government is trying to strike a balance, but it's
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  Speaker 2: this constant ambiguity and vagueness around what is this hotter temperature?
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  Speaker 2: And do politicians also, certainly not Helen Haynes, who was
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  Speaker 2: a big champion of integrity and recently actually called out
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  Speaker 2: the prime minister over the membership of that golf club.
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  Speaker 2: But for Anthony Albanese, he really has to, I think,
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  Speaker 2: explain what he means by that. If it is social media,
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  Speaker 2: talk about what you're going to do about it. And
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  Speaker 2: it is difficult because so many people are doing some
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  Speaker 2: very grotesque things and a lot of female politicians parliamentarians
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  Speaker 2: and public officials are affected more so. But once they
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: go through the processes of apprehending these people, quite often
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  Speaker 2: it's a charge and quite often it's a fine. And
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  Speaker 2: then it's not like they're spending much time in jail. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, certainly we don't want to see what we've
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  Speaker 2: seen in the UK, US, in Japan and other Western countries. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, unfortunately, you know, it is a serious issue
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  Speaker 2: and we have to address it.
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  Speaker 1: You and I have both covered politics and been in
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  Speaker 1: journalism for a really long time, Jeff, not to age you. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Bob Carr is right, you know, and he
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  Speaker 1: comes from the bear pit of New South Wales politics
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  Speaker 1: where it was absolutely vicious in the 1990s. John Howard,
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  Speaker 1: very much the same. But if you look at where
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  Speaker 1: the heat is now in politics, it's on the left
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  Speaker 1: and the right. So the Greens are accusing each other
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  Speaker 1: of being sex pests and they're launching bullying claims against
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  Speaker 1: one another. And then on the right, Pauline Hanson is
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  Speaker 1: calling Andrew Hastie a traitor. And she's making jokes in
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  Speaker 1: a cartoon about Jackie Lambie's vagina. If you think it's
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  Speaker 1: a laughable matter about women having problems with their reproductive system,
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  Speaker 1: then you be my guest and you stand by her.
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  Speaker 2: But seriously, enough is enough. Have you heard, Claire, that
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  Speaker 2: she's taking that down?
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: She's responded for the first time on a cartoon. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that is because she is understanding that they
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  Speaker 2: are becoming mainstream. And does she want to put off
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  Speaker 2: female voters? But It is very heated and a very
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  Speaker 2: contested space.
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  Speaker 1: But Anthony Albanese won't say that. He won't say, when
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  Speaker 1: I say take the temperature down, I'm talking about all
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  Speaker 1: you misogynists on X and all you kind of crazies,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you keffiyeh-wearing crazies. And he won't say, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm also talking about you, Pauline and co. So why not?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting. He had a personal experience through the
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: pro-Palestine push. He's obviously the member for Grayner, a very green,
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  Speaker 2: progressive area of Sydney area. And his electorate office was
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  Speaker 2: targeted incessantly. He was targeted incessantly. His staff were to
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  Speaker 2: the point where he had to move offices to provide
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  Speaker 2: a more secure space. So he understands very personally as
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  Speaker 2: the prime minister with a security detail who faces a
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  Speaker 2: lot of threats probably on a daily basis. He understands
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  Speaker 2: what that threat is. And he has been in this
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  Speaker 2: place for a long time. I think as the leader
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  Speaker 2: of this country, he needs to explain things and not
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  Speaker 2: be scared about any political fallout. Because I think that
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  Speaker 2: punters are just desperate for honesty from our politicians.
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  Speaker 1: Geoff Chambers, thank you very much. Thanks, Claire. Geoff Chambers
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  Speaker 1: is The Australian's political editor. This story is moving fast
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  Speaker 1: and you can catch the latest right now at theaustralian.com.au.