Politics live updates: Thousands of threats uncovered on politicians’ social media

Tributes are continuing this morning by federal parliamentarians for independent MP Helen Haines after she was struck by a car last week.

Monday had marked the first session back in Canberra since the attack in regional Victoria and saw most of the day spent on emotional speeches in the House.

Politicians have also started signing a “civility pledge”, which is a cross-party initiative led by Compassion in Politics Australia to commit to a more respectful style of politics.

The initiative had originally started in the United Kingdom in 2018 and Dr Haines had been the first Australian politician to sign up to it.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender had pledged to sign it during her address to the House of Representatives on Monday, and called for all to be more compassionate in their engagement in Canberra.

Greens leader David Shoebridge also signed up to the pledge on Monday.

Curtin MP Kate Chaney had said in the wake of Dr Haines attack that she often felt embarrassed by the tone of Question Time and had been shocked by the rhetoric thrown across the aisle when she was first elected.

Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett had told ABC Insiders on Sunday that political rhetoric could have a direct link to reactions in the community.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor on Monday, however, disagreed with the view that there was a connection between robust parliamentary debate and political violence.

When Nationals leader Matt Canavan was asked by The Nightly about the pledge yesterday and whether he and Coalition members would consider signing up, he claimed “look, I haven’t seen it”.

“So, I have to have a look at it but as I say, I’m also very firm of the view that if we have a job to do with this place to be, to be robust to take up the fight on political issues,” he added.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says the volume of abuse to politicians has been growing to an unprecedented level and they’re sick of it.

Speaking on RN Breakfast on Tuesday morning, she highlighted new data showing almost 5000 threats and violent comments to 22 Labor politicians had been flagged in just three months.

The abuse was captured on their social media accounts between July and October by a new AI app, Areto, which politicians and their team are trialing to monitor threats.

“I think it is the volume that people are feeling the pressure from,” the ACT Senator said.

“I think we’ve always put up with some pretty robust feedback in politics.

“Certainly in the last couple of years, it’s just been increasing and it weighs heavily on people. People have just had enough.”

She said it not only includes death threats to elected members but also rape threats and intentions to harm their children.

“Certainly in my time in politics but the volume, the scale, and the forcefulness of the threats and the violence and the abusive language is something that I haven’t seen,” she said.

Areto acts as a triage or quarantined pen for the messages and can often mean that individual MPS and Senators don’t have to see them and assessed more than 460,000 comments posted to the accounts of 22 federal Labor MPs and senators between July and October 2026.

Former Prime Minister John Howard has criticised the rapid expansion of Australia’s public sector, arguing rising government spending, higher bureaucratic wages and lack of economic reform are weighing on productivity.

Mr Howard called for greater restraint in public service growth and expressed concern that government employees were receiving higher pay and more generous conditi0ons than their private sector counterparts.

Asked whether the growth of public service needed to be curbed, Mr Howard replied: “Absolutely.”

“Our productivity is … close to being a result of us having run bad economic policies, too much spending, too much taxation, too little reform for too long,” he said, as cited by The Herald Sun.

His comments come as public sector wages continue to grow faster than those in the private sector. Over the past six quarters, public sector wages have increased by 3.4 per cent, compared with 3.1 per cent for private sector workers.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has landed a new academic role in the school of public health at the University of Sydney.

“Her work will focus on empathetic leadership, social cohesion and civic trust; further developing new approaches to global and ­values-based leadership, as well as exploring new ways to address global health challenges centred on equity, inclusion and wellbeing,” the university said in a statement.

“She will engage with students, researchers and the wider university community through guest lectures, masterclasses and mentor­ing.

“The position is not a full-time teaching role.”

Ms Adern spent just over five years in office as head of governemnt before she suddenly stepped down from the top job in February 2023.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has backed Anthony Albanese’s calls to tone down political rhetoric a day after parliament paid tribute to alleged attack victim Helen Haines.

“We’re seeing heat online, impacting lots of different people in lots of different ways,” Mr Marles told ABC.

“And I think that’s why, you know, when the Prime Minister calls for us, for the public discourse to see that temperature be turned down, it’s really important that that happens.

“I know these people, obviously, and whichever party people are coming from, at the end of the day, MPs are trying to do their best to represent their constituents, improve their lives, make our country better.”

Mr Marles said it was “everyone’s” responsibility to help turn down the temperature in Australian politics.

“I really hope that all of us can do better, and I don’t think it is about how parliamentarians engage in a public debate. I actually don’t,” he added.

“I think it’s also about how the media, in case it’s in the reporting of the debate as well.

“I think all of us need to take a responsibility here for the public discourse that we are all part of. That’s where we need to really try and collectively engage in bringing the temperature down, and having a much more respectful and civil discourse that I know that that’s what Helen Haines would want.

The Australian government is pressing the economic accelerator just as the Reserve Bank slams on the brakes with a series of interest rate increases, according to economists.

On Sunday, RBA chief economist Sarah Hunter acknowledged that government spending was adding to demand across the economy, while making clear the central bank cannot influence fiscal policy and instead has to take its effects into account when setting interest rates.

“The RBA just has to set interest rates around government spending,” said Damien Boey, a Portfolio Strategist at Wilson Asset Management.

“It (the RBA) looks at the aggregate inflation picture and doesn’t like the rate it is growing at. But from a markets perspective we think inflation is now going to come down. The private sector is now getting hammered by the RBA hikes.”

Public spending is forecast to remain near historically high levels as a share of economic output, reaching 26.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the year to June 2027, before edging up to 27.1 per cent in fiscal year 2028.

The high level of government spending comes as weak productivity growth limits how quickly the economy can expand without pushing inflation higher than the RBA’s 2.5 per cent target.

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