Tracee Hutchison knew campaigning for a political seat in which major parties had reigned would be a slog.
But she did not anticipate death threats, pictures of her being gagged and a co-ordinated letterbox drop slandering her. The veteran TV and radio broadcaster ran as an independent for a 2026 by-election in Victoria's state seat of Nepean, which she funded through community support and without a major backer.
But the campaign was targeted by attacks designed to smear her and affiliate her with causes she had nothing to do with, Ms Hutchison told AAP.
Ms Hutchison said she had been distressed by the alleged attack on federal independent Helen Haines, who has lost her leg and remains in a critical condition after being rammed twice by a car near her electorate office on Monday.
Ms Hutchinson has decided not to run in Victoria's state election in November, despite winning almost a quarter of first preferences at the by-election in May, because of rising violence towards women.
"What I experienced in the by-election was a sustained, organised harassment and bullying campaign," she told AAP.
"The verbal harassment I experienced, and that the women my team did, was unlike anything I had anticipated."
Ms Hutchison said she reported threats and feeling unsafe to the Victorian Electoral Commission every day during pre-polling, but little could be done.
"There is no framework for the officers to do anything other than come out to the polling booth and tell everyone to behave,'' she said.
"They then go back inside and people kick off again."
The threats came from many corners of the Melbourne electorate, but the most sustained ones were from a group of young men, Ms Hutchison alleged.
"Something has gone horribly wrong in this country," she said.
"Violent attacks on public figures representing their electorates and violence against women are linked."
Ultimately, Ms Hutchison said her safety trumped her "democratic right" to run for election and she would not contest again.
Fellow Victorian Georgie Purcell, who is a state upper-house politician for the Animal Justice Party, has called for increased security before the Victorian election in November.
She said she had been subject to thousands of death and sexual assault threats. "One comment on my post about Helen (Haines) said they wished it had happened to me," she told AAP on Tuesday.
Ms Purcell knows the Indi MP well and received a handwritten card from her before the birth of her daughter.
She wanted politicians and police to reflect on the political state of the nation and demanded better help from the Victorian Police and Australian Federal Police when campaigning.