July 17, 2024
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has Australian politicians calling for a calming of public debates, amid fears attacks on elected figures here could see a greater need for police protection.
Even before the former US president was shot at the weekend, there had been a surge of threats on politicians in the last year, prompting a scaling up of Australian Federal Police (AFP) protection.
A politician the ABC spoke with on Monday described the threat level was worlds apart from when they were first elected and feared if something "terrible" happened to a politician, it would see many MPs needing to be under police protection.
Cabinet Minister Bill Shorten said it was the most intense and abusive political environment he had seen in 17 years as federal MP.
"The temperature is definitely up and headed in the wrong direction," he told the ABC.
The AFP offers permanent close personal protection to the governor-general and the prime minister.
The force also protects ministers, diplomats and foreign officials as required. The Department of Home Affairs also provides physical security for a range of senior politicians and former PMs and governors general.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said domestic security agencies would examine the assassination attempt and assess if any security changes are needed for Australian politicians.
It comes as AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw has repeatedly warned Australia was on track to hit a record level of threats being made against federal politicians this year.
Earlier this month, he said there'd been 725 threats made between July and March. That compares to 555 threats in 2021-22 and 709 in 2022-23. He said additional threats had also been made against former MPs.
"We're flat out at the moment in this area," he told senators in May.
"It is one of my biggest concerns that we're seeing the threat increase, not decrease."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he feared politics globally was becoming "uglier, more violent, more polarised in extreme ways".
"We can't assume that just because we see violence in other parts of the world that we are immune from it here in Australia," he said yesterday.
"We need ongoing vigilance, not violence, because the sorts of developments we've seen around the world, in the US, but not just in the US, these are really troubling developments and I think Australians and others around the world are rightly concerned."
His was a sentiment echoed by Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson, who has just returned from a trip to the US.
"Two members of Parliament in the UK in the last decade have been murdered and there are some troubling signs that there are trends towards using violent means in Australia to try and intimidate parliamentarians and their staff," he said.
"We cannot allow that to take hold here."
Added to the threats levelled at federal politicians has been the fallout from the Israel-Gaza war.
Electorate offices have been vandalised and police have been sent to protect the safety of politicians and their staff.
"We have spoken to state police, and they're seeing similar things with state politicians," Commissioner Kershaw told senators.
While security agencies, and politicians, are reluctant to speak publicly about the extent of politicians with protection, some of the most high-profile politicians have long had security because of the threats they have received.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said the threats politicians received were a barrier to people entering politics.
"We need more diverse representation in politics, but minorities, and particularly women of colour, are disproportionately harassed and threatened," she said.
"This is a daily occurrence for me. These risks are a real barrier to good people entering politics."
In the days before Mr Trump was shot, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese freely moved throughout Queensland, announcing Labor candidates ahead of the election. He posed for selfies with the public and walked through streets and parks.
He said it would be a "tragedy" if politicians were further removed from the public because of security threats.
"The president of the United States, I'm sure, doesn't go to the local shopping centre," Mr Albanese said on Sunday.
"I think it's a good thing that here in Australia I can. It's a good thing that I'm able to walk around and I don't want to see that diminished."
In 2019, the then water minister David Littleproud, now the leader of the National Party, required police protection to visit parts of the Murray-Darling Basin.
In one instance, a protester carried a noose as he approached Mr Littleproud. In the same week, an effigy of Mr Littleproud was thrown into the Murray River.
"That some ministers have had to engage police protection, and some departments have directed staff not to visit certain parts of the basin for fear of physical violence, is not acceptable," former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty told the ABC in 2019.
"Our democracy is better than that.
"The optics and cost of police protection does not sit well with our democracy and should not be ignored."
