Live: Minister says threats against MPs are not new following Haines, WA incident

Independent MP Monique Ryan and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie have joined the Channel Nine political panel.

The Nationals senator says she would hate to see rigorous debate silenced out of fear following this attack.

She says parliamentarians need to remain "steadfast" and not retreat back in fear because of online attacks

"You don't have to like a politician, you don't have to agree with their politics. You don't have to support their political party to actually feel human compassion," McKenzie says.

Ryan says it's important to remain engaged with local communities and improve the quality of debate in Australian politics.

"We want people to want to go into politics. We want our teams to feel safe. We want our volunteers and our community members to feel that they can be around us and not be at risk," Ryan says.

Several Australian websites, including government sites, have been disrupted after the identification of a vulnerability in a widely-used internet programing language.

A critical vulnerability alert was issued by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) about vulnerabilities in PHP core — a widely used scripting engine which underpins large parts of the internet.

The Australian Signal Directorate's own cyber.gov.au website has been impacted by the outage, according to an ACSC post on social media.

A spokesperson for the home affairs minister some some websites are temporarily unavailable  as work is undertaken to fix the vulnerability.

"Organisations and individuals using PHP within their environments should follow advice from the Australian Signals Directorate and monitor and review PHP official guidance, and apply security patches as they become available," the spokesperson says.

Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson has said the advice provided to parliamentarians at a security briefing yesterday was not new, but some politicans might have been hearing it for the first time.

Some MPs told the ABC yesterday they were underwhelmed by the safety session, which included previous advice about modifying travel routes and no broadcasting their public appearances ahead of time.

The Liberal senator said while that was perfectly logical operational security advice, it wasn't always workable.

"It's not terribly practical for a member of parliament that wants to serve their community," Paterson told News24.

"It's not always possible to vary your route and it's certainly not always possible to never advertise your appearances in future."

He said his defence portfolio and previous role in home affairs meant he was attuned to the risk for his staff and family. 

He reiterated that electorate offices were too exposed and said security cameras and bollards might help.

Paterson added that police were working to determine the motive of the alleged driver in the Helen Haines attack, and that if it ultimately was not triggered by political events, then lowering the temperature of political debate might not have helped to prevent that incident or future attacks.

MPs and senators have been told to vary their daily routines and take different routes to walk as a safety precaution, though police have not advised of any imminent threats.

Following the alleged attack on Helen Haines, the Australian Federal Police offered parliamentarians a safety briefing on Wednesday where they reiterated key advice.

MPs were encouraged to report more of the threats they received and urged to share their diaries with the AFP to help them keep track of scheduled public events.

Parliamentarians have previously been told not to advertise public appearances in advance and in the briefing were advised to maintain situational awareness of their surroundings, particularly when around their electorate offices.

Several MPs said they felt the meetings offered an opportunity for them to voice their concerns, which the AFP agreed to take on board.

But others were underwhelmed and told the ABC they did not get the answers they were seeking about baseline security for their homes and electorate offices.

Read the full story from chief digital political correspondent Clare Armstrong in the link below.

Anthony Albanese has urged Australians to wrap their arms around Helen Haines's family following an alleged attack outside the Indi MP's electorate office.

In an opinion piece to The Daily Telegraph, the prime minister says the world is a more dangerous and divided place than a generation ago.

He says people's connection with their local member and senators is a "precious feature" of Australians democracy that if lost, will never return.

"We will always have issues on which we disagree — but we must be able to do this without challenging or questioning the loyalty to Australia of those who have a different perspective," Albanese says.

"There is more than enough cruelty, violence and hatred in the world without us adding to it. We can disagree — but we need settle those disagreements at the ballot box, as we have always done.

"We need genuine debate. We need more respect. More kindness. More listening and less shouting."

Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog. Thank you for joining us here early on a Thursday morning.

I'm Josh Boscaini live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news.

The Australian Federal Police has told MPs to vary their daily routines and take different routes following the alleged attack on Helen Haines.

Haines's family confirmed the Indi MP has had both her legs amputated after she was repeatedly rammed by Toyota LandCruiser on Monday.

The prime minister has written opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph urging Australians to wrap their arms around Haines's family.