Politicians would receive bolstered police protection and security for homes and offices under options being weighed by Labor to address mounting safety concerns after the attack on Helen Haines.
Parliament will hold a dedicated session of tributes for Haines on Monday, according to sources in the Albanese government, but Labor will still push forward its legislative agenda on taxing trusts, the digital duty of care, and keeping gas onshore.
MPs have privately noted an increase in erratic behaviour at electorate offices since the Haines attack, though it is not clear if this is due to increased reporting.
Monday’s four-wheel-drive attack on the independent MP has exposed long-running tensions between federal parliamentarians and the authorities responsible for protecting them.
Elected officials claim security agencies are too reactive and need to modernise their communication with MPs to ensure politicians and their staff feel safe. But authorities have also expressed frustration with MPs who fail to follow protocol when flagging high-risk events or reporting incidents.
The solutions currently being contemplated would probably have done little to stop what authorities believe was an opportunistic, rather than planned, attack on Haines.
But well-placed government sources said the shocking event had elevated a widely held sense among MPs of all stripes that more must be done to counter the rising threat level.
The sources said ministers wanted the Australian Federal Police’s protective services to be more proactive. MPs want threat assessments without necessarily needing to request them, and more open lines of communication with police to feel more comfortable about their safety.
“Currently [MPs] feel in the dark,” one source said, noting they were not criticising the AFP but responding to a fast-moving, more turbulent society that has proved more dangerous for many people, not just politicians.
“The system is a bit reactive now. The assumption should be that something could go wrong.”
Fears about MP safety fed into the wide-ranging Independent Review of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Support System launched by Special Minister of State Don Farrell and led by former staffers who have been speaking to MPs and staff since April.
“Parliamentarians and their staff work in an environment of robust debate but must be safe from threats and acts of physical and psychological harm, including at their electorate offices, online and at public events,” the issues paper released in July suggested.
Observations stemming from the review, which still has many months to run, may form part of a more immediate package of measures in response to the Haines attack.
Haines remains in critical condition three days after she was rammed by a LandCruiser while taking things from the boot of her own car in front of her electorate office in Wangaratta in north-east Victoria. Her husband Phil Haines revealed on Wednesday that both her legs had been amputated as surgeons at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital battled to save her life.
Kaz Rourke, Haines’ chief of staff, released a statement on Thursday saying the MP’s team was devastated and the Wangaratta office may reopen next week.
“Most of us were in the office when the incident occurred and some of us were involved in Helen’s immediate care, so this has been deeply traumatic for the team,” she said.
The security upgrades are subject to change but likely to include an overhaul of the way in which safety at electorate offices is upgraded, which can currently take many months. The government also wants to make it easier for MPs to install cameras and fences at their homes, potentially through a government-funded round of upgrades or a tax deductibility scheme. MPs are currently forced to pay thousands for such installations.
Politicians from all parties vented their frustrations about the security architecture in private briefings with Home Affairs, the AFP and ASIO on Wednesday. They were advised, as they were before this week, to vary their daily travel to not become an easy target, but there was a widespread view among MPs that more could be done.
“There’s a real balance to be found here on what we can do here that’s reasonable and not excessive without freaking everyone out,” said Monique Ryan, member for Kooyong and a friend of Haines, calling for bollards outside offices but dismissing the need for permanent guards.
On Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke pointed to a shift in how Australia protects MPs, referencing the UK’s recent move to assign each MP a specific security officer. UK security services have also advised MPs to build “panic rooms” in their homes after the murder of conservative political figure Anne Widdecombe.
As MPs raise alarm about online threats, Albanese said Labor’s digital duty of care was designed to make tech firms accountable.
“These tech platforms certainly need to do better in taking material down,” he told ABC Sydney.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor warned about the cost of limiting arguments in public life, as Albanese repeated his catchphrase to “turn down the temperature” of political debate.
“We need that vigorous and rigorous debate, which has characterised our democracy since it was formed. Our democracy was built on the Westminster system, which requires and needs vigorous and rigorous debate, but it should never cross the line,” Taylor told reporters.