The sickening attack on Helen Haines has exposed something precious about Australian democracy – and the corrosive effect of threats, humiliation and dehumanising political language.
I had intended today to bring you news from my week in China, but the sickening attack on independent MP Helen Haines has taken precedence.
Like so many, in Australia and abroad, I was horrified to hear of the violent attack on the much-loved member for Indi.
A consistent and passionate campaigner for integrity and transparency, deeply embedded in her north-east Victorian electorate, Haines is – as Senator David Pocock said at the National Press Club this week – the local MP we all wish we had.
There is no protective bubble built around Australian parliamentarians, and that is important. We know this is not the case in other countries, and they are the worse for it.
Living in Canberra, you can drive up the Hill and have coffee at the same café as the prime minister. On sitting nights it is not unusual to run into politicians doing a last-minute dash to their local shops.
We expect access to our elected representatives, to tell them of our concerns and hopes. We expect they will take that understanding about what matters most to us into the legislative process. Representing her community is what Haines has done since her election in 2019. That’s the democratic deal.
Acts of violence against our representatives shatter that deal – they threaten the democratic bargain that holds communities together.
And while this is not exclusively a problem for women parliamentarians, let’s not pretend the issue is not worse for them.
Who can forget the ‘Ditch the witch’ signs aimed at our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, that were a backdrop for then opposition leader Tony Abbott. And Alan Jones’ consistent tirades against ‘Ju-liar’ and telling a Liberal Party dinner that her dad had “died of shame”.
This kind of language can help create an environment in which division, hatred and threats are normalised, enabled by those who know better and amplified by social media. Remember Jones and Cronulla.
Scratch below the surface and all parliamentarians have experienced vile threats, against them and their families. Reflecting on her 28 years in politics, Tanya Plibersek said this week that it is the industrial scale of the threats that is different now. She told of countless rape and death threats, of a note slipped under the front door of her home hoping her children died from painful cancers.
On Monday night, a quite visibly affected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged his parliamentary colleagues to “take the temperature down”; to engage in robust debate but to do it respectfully. When leaders behave badly, it can license vile and violent behaviour across society.
“Take the temperature down” should not mean “speak a bit more softly to the electorate for a while”. It should mean political leaders refusing to excuse dehumanising language, even when it’s from their own side – and consequences when parliamentarians step over that line. It should mean the media not treating abuse as just another bit of political theatre. It should mean platforms and police responding seriously to threats. And it should mean all of us distinguishing robust disagreement from humiliation and hatred.
Conducting debate in a forthright, robust and civilised fashion is what we do at Pearls and Irritations.
Before I finish, a note on what we’ll be covering over the coming week.
Israel goes to the polls next week, and we will run a series of articles both from P&I authors and international sources, in the lead-up.
The election can be seen as a referendum on the behaviour of the Israeli state over the past three years – and on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The stakes could not be higher.
Today, Gideon Levy reminds us of a time when it was possible for Israelis and Palestinians to stand side by side. Tomorrow, we explain how the election process works, and what the prospects are for change.
Until next week.
Catriona Jackson is the Chief Executive and Editor of Pearls and Irritations.