‘We owe it to Helen’

I also send my thanks, however inadequate they are, to the people who came to Helen’s aid – the bystanders, her staff, paramedics and police and the medical teams.  

For all the despair created by what happened last week, the good people who acted, and who did their job, as well as Helen and Phil’s innate decency and generosity are an antidote to that despair.  So too, were the Governor-General’s fine remarks in Melbourne last week. 

The attack on Helen was also an assault on the democratic will of the people of Indi, who chose to send Helen to Canberra on their behalf.  Our job, our profession – and yes our vocation is to be in the community. It is to see, to listen, engage and represent the people of our electorates. 

It is also to navigate, explain and debate the choices and challenges before our nation. 

Disagreement is foundational to democracy. Our work is to debate – and deliver.  We can’t step back from our responsibilities, but we have to reflect on what is happening around us. 

The fragmentation of beliefs, the escalation of frustration, the shattering of norms and the inability to see the humanity of the people we disagree with - are changing the environment we work in. 

Every member and senator has experienced it. The AFP received more than one thousand reports of threats and harassment against parliamentarians and officeholders last financial year, and it is struggling to meet these demands from its existing budget. 

I believe we need a new approach. Security now warrants a better integrated approach, where services are consolidated into a parliamentary security office resourced as the parliamentary budget office is. 

I acknowledge people such as the members for Canning, Berowra and Macnamara and the Minister for Small Business who have faced particular threats and intimidation at different times. 

We also have to engage with another issue too. Rural Australia is in the grip of a mental health crisis.  Rural Australians aren’t more likely to have a mental illness. They’re more likely to die from one though.  

I can’t say that the AFP could have prevented the shocking incident last week. But addressing the mental health crisis in regional Australia may well prevent another. We must meet this moment, or it will pass until the next time.  

Mr Speaker, there have been calls to moderate debate. My concern is that what it really means from the people making those calls is that we must all agree, or that we are simply calling on those not on our own side to tone it down.  We must not lose the contestability of policy and ideas. 

Nor can we lose heart and soul in debate. Parliamentary democracy means holding government to account and robust debate enables that.  We cannot simply all agree with one another. The behaviour, tone and nuance with which we argue matters though.  

Mr Speaker, I believe something deeper has been eroding. Trust in our institutions has been worn down, and in some quarters it has been weaponised.  For years now we have heard, from voices at each end of the spectrum, that the system is broken and that politicians are only in it for themselves.  

The French writer Alphonse Karr once said that some people grumble that roses have thorns, while he was grateful that thorns have roses. If we only ever look for the bad, the bad is all we will find. 

We have seen the dehumanising of people in public life spill well beyond politics. Retail staff, nurses, council workers and paramedics have all experienced this pandemic of abuse. We are living through an era of entitlement to incivility.  

Finally, the threats against women in this place must be named. Men face them too, but women are over-represented in a particular type of abuse. Like all female parliamentarians, I face an inbox and social media feed with continual gendered and sexualised comments. 

There is much that must change - and this debate is a good place to start. We owe it to Helen, we owe it to each other, and we owe it to the country to continue it. 

May I conclude with a few words for Helen. Helen, the people of Indi want you home. And we want you home in your place here, my friend.