Katy Gallagher banned from advertising coffee catch-ups in her electorate amid security concerns

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has had to stop holding coffee meet up with constituents in her electorate due to security concerns, the ACT Labor Senator has revealed.

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"When I started in politics and right up until quite recently, you could advertise you were going to be at a particular venue," Senator Gallagher told The Canberra Times in an interview.

"You know, like 'come and have a coffee catch up at the Dickson or Downer' ... I can't do that anymore. You're not allowed. That's the advice to me."

The former chief minister has had to scale back her local engagements. Picture by Karleen Minney

Senator Gallagher, who joined the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2001 and was Chief Minister before entering the federal parliament, said the attack on independent Indi MP Helen Haines had shocked politicians into speaking about the heightened security threats they have been dealing with.

"Is this really how we have to operate now?" she said.

Katy Gallagher at The Canberra Times' centenerary dinner in October 2026. Picture by ACM

"In the old days, you used to letterbox and say you'd be at the shops at 10 o'clock, 'come down and have a chat' ... In more recent times, we would put it on Facebook."

Federal MPs and senators had to share their diaries with the Australian Federal Police and receive advice on how to stay safe, she confirmed.

"In the last 18 months to two years, the political temperature has been significantly elevated. Much hotter than I have ever experienced in my career."

Senator Gallagher, who is the Minister for Women, said Labor's women's caucus had rolled out an app for female MPs to strip out abusive comments from their social media posts.

The "volume and scale of abuse" - particularly that directed at women, which "tends to be really sexualised" - had increased.

"[It's] about what harm they're going to cause you or or your children," she said, saying online abuse had include violent threats such as "I will rape your daughters".

She said extreme views had taken hold "on both sides of politics," worsening the polarisation of online debate that was spilling into real life.

Senator Gallagher said the incident had occurred in front of her daughter, who was 17-years-old at the time.

She had grown accustomed to dealing with verbal abuse while out in public around Canberra.

"I don't know what's happened that's made it acceptable to just scream at somebody, and that is seen as okay," Senator Gallagher said.

"There's one guy who often yells at me at Lyneham shops, and it's all about Digital ID ... He goes, 'Get your hands off my f***ing digital ID, Katy!'

"I go 'you don't have to have one, mate. Like, just don't have one. It's voluntary.'

"He's yelled at me enough for me to know now that I don't think he's going to hurt me, but he just behaves in a way that is really horrible."

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