A man has been charged with threatening an Australian lawmaker’s staff with nunchucks, police said on Thursday, days after another legislator was critically injured when a man repeatedly hit her with a car.
The incidents are heightening concerns about female politicians’ safety and raising concerns about security in a country where lawmakers are highly accessible to the public.
Police say that a 56-year-old man entered Western Australian state government minister Hannah Beazley’s electorate office in suburban Perth on Wednesday, brandishing nunchucks and making verbal threats. Beazley was not in the office at the time.
Nunchucks are a weapon used in martial arts consisting of two sticks or rods connected by a rope or chain.