{"id":940603,"date":"2026-10-25T17:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T17:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940603\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T17:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T17:06:10","slug":"haines-tribute-speeches-to-open-parliament-but-labor-mustnt-overlook-broader-causes-of-boiling-anger-josh-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940603\/","title":{"rendered":"Haines tribute speeches to open parliament, but Labor mustn\u2019t overlook broader causes of boiling anger | Josh Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal parliament will commence on Monday morning with speeches paying tribute to Helen Haines<\/a>. It should be a unifying, bipartisan moment for an increasingly febrile, unpleasant political bubble.<\/p>\n

Our political representatives talk of turning down temperatures and being kinder, but the challenge is whether they will actually change their own behaviour \u2013 not just hector their opponents to do so. Already, we are seeing cracks that the parliamentary kumbaya moment will not last long, and that real contributors to the anger and dislocation present in some parts of Australia may be too hard to fix.<\/p>\n

One immediate thread is Labor\u2019s digital duty of care, up for debate this week. The shadow communications minister, Sarah Henderson, claimed the government was \u201cusing this horrific attack\u201d on Haines to push its reforms \u2013 a charge Labor denies.<\/p>\n

The alleged attack on Haines has ripped open a much wider examination of safety and security<\/a> for MPs and political staff, particularly women, and in relation to online abuse. This is an overdue discussion; stomach-churning reports<\/a> aired last week, often kept private by MPs, include MPs being mailed human faeces, forced to move house, and Tanya Plibersek revealing \u201cregular\u201d rape threats.<\/p>\n

Monday morning will see Anthony Albanese give a tribute speech in parliament, expected to be followed by many fellow MPs. There is discussion inside government about immediate safety improvements for MPs<\/a>, and a broader project on national civility and respect; not just for politicians but retail workers, emergency services, nurses and more. Expect that to percolate over coming weeks. But senior Labor ministers pointed to the DDOC as one piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

On ABC radio last week, Hamish Macdonald asked Albanese \u201cwhat\u2019s the answer?\u201d to address such vile online abuse.<\/p>\n

Albanese said the government tried \u201ca range of measures\u201d including \u201ca very modest digital duty of care legislation before the parliament. We\u2019ll wait and see whether it receives support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The housing minister, Clare O\u2019Neil, told Radio National there \u201chas to be a reckoning\u201d about anger online, calling out \u201ccompanies making billions of dollars off making Australians angry and disrespectful\u201d. She didn\u2019t mention digital duty of care specifically, but touched on some of its main aims.<\/p>\n

The communications minister, Anika Wells, wouldn\u2019t draw specific links between social media or DDOC and the alleged attack on Haines, but last week called for \u201can honest conversation about the broader online environment we are living in\u201d, saying platforms should \u201credesign\u201d products.<\/p>\n

Henderson, who wants DDOC be dumped entirely and said the Coalition<\/a> wouldn\u2019t negotiate, was unhappy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inappropriate to be speculating about any causal link between Helen Haines\u2019 alleged attacker and social media which is a matter for the courts,\u201d she told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI regret the government appears to be using this horrific attack to support its flawed policy agenda \u2026 More action is required to keep Australians safe online but Labor\u2019s digital duty of care is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationals MP Sam Birrell, a fellow regional Victorian who is close to Haines, told me he would be \u201cbe disappointed if people use this tragedy to make a political point\u201d about DDOC.<\/p>\n

The government rejected such assertions. Wells\u2019 office said the duty of care would \u201cmitigate harm before it occurs\u201d, and update existing industry codes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe codes and standards are a complex, patchwork approach that any parent or person who has been harmed online will tell you is not working,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Wells, among the youngest cabinet ministers in history, has become a target for ridicule and anger from conservative opponents, accused of an \u201cOrwellian\u201d system of \u201ccensorship\u201d<\/a> \u2013 charges she strongly denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is that the kind of rhetoric Albanese means when he calls to \u201cturn down the temperature\u201d?<\/p>\n

Speaking to numerous MPs across the political divide, common phrases included talk of \u201cdisagreeing better\u201d, \u201cimproving the tone\u201d, \u201crising to the occasion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Most agreed standards had to improve. But few were confident that would happen.<\/p>\n

Crossbenchers have long raised alarm about the venomous nature of question time, calling for more civil discourse. Monique Ryan told me last week: \u201cIf that doesn\u2019t happen now, I\u2019m terribly concerned it never will.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Labor MP said the government genuinely wanted things toned down, but conceded \u201cit\u2019s hard to legislate courtesy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d hope this would be a week of reflection for people who inflame tensions,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Another Coalition MP, however, said they didn\u2019t want question time changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want it vanilla. I like it robust, it\u2019s important,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

How the parliament and government will respond to the alleged Haines attack remains unclear. Police have declined to speculate on the motivations of Haines\u2019 alleged attacker. But experts say a more holistic look at social factors causing dislocation and stress must be part of any political response.<\/p>\n

Debra Smith, professor of political science at Victoria University who focuses on violent political extremism, said \u201cgrievance-fuelled\u201d violence can develop through mental health issues, but also alongside general feelings of social instability or a deterioration of living conditions.<\/p>\n

Respected mental health expert Prof Patrick McGorry wrote online<\/a> the surge in abuse of MPs was connected to \u201cthe threadbare state of state mental health systems which must be completely rebuilt\u201d, adding \u201cwe can\u2019t jail this away\u201d.<\/p>\n

These expert analyses raise wicked problems for any government to fix.<\/p>\n

Labor\u2019s modus operandi of telling Australians that things are going well, of spin such as workers\u2019 share of GDP is growing or that the Reserve Bank card changes could make your coffee cheaper<\/a>, is clearly no longer cutting it and being tuned out by struggling Australians \u2013 see the surge to One Nation.<\/p>\n

A fifth interest rate rise is on the cards<\/a> next month as the Reserve Bank struggles to lower inflation, and Jim Chalmers is preparing for a worse budget<\/a> and higher unemployment.<\/p>\n

Will any of these lighten the mood for Australians? What about unleaded petrol at a national average<\/a> of $2.42 a litre, jacking up prices for everything with Christmas on the way?<\/p>\n

David Pocock gave a shocking window into everyday struggles at the National Press Club, recounting a story of a woman sobbing in his office<\/a>, so destitute on the miserable jobseeker allowance that she ate a neighbour\u2019s dog food because she hadn\u2019t eaten meat in so long.<\/p>\n

Not every Australian experiencing mental health issues, poverty or mortgage issues will turn to violence, as the Australian federal police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said on Insiders <\/a>on Sunday. But the government cannot ignore key reasons contributing to Australians feeling sadder, angrier and more desperate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal parliament will commence on Monday morning with speeches paying tribute to Helen Haines. It should be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-940603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}