Tributes and flowers are left for independent federal MP Helen Haines outside her electoral office in Wangaratta. The independent MP will be at the forefront of many politicians’ minds when parliament sits this week. Photograph: James Ross/AAP View image in fullscreen Tributes and flowers are left for independent federal MP Helen Haines outside her electoral office in Wangaratta. The independent MP will be at the forefront of many politicians’ minds when parliament sits this week. Photograph: James Ross/AAP The Agenda Helen Haines Haines tribute speeches to open parliament, but Labor mustn’t overlook broader causes of boiling anger Josh Butler Poverty, health and dislocation are fuelling political anger. Labor can’t ignore this in response to alleged attack on Indi MP
Follow our Australian politics live blog for latest updates
Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast
Federal parliament will commence on Monday morning with speeches paying tribute to Helen Haines . It should be a unifying, bipartisan moment for an increasingly febrile, unpleasant political bubble.
Our political representatives talk of turning down temperatures and being kinder, but the challenge is whether they will actually change their own behaviour – 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.
One immediate thread is Labor’s digital duty of care (DDOC), up for debate this week. The shadow communications minister, Sarah Henderson, claimed the government was “using this horrific attack” on Haines to push its reforms – a charge Labor denies.
Read more The alleged attack on Haines has ripped open a much wider examination of safety and security for MPs and political staff, particularly women, and in relation to online abuse. This is an overdue discussion; stomach-churning reports aired last week, often kept private by MPs, include MPs being mailed human faeces, forced to move house, and Tanya Plibersek revealing “regular” rape threats.
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 , 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.
On ABC radio last week, Hamish Macdonald asked Albanese “what’s the answer?” to address such vile online abuse.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here
Albanese said the government tried “a range of measures” including “a very modest digital duty of care legislation before the parliament. We’ll wait and see whether it receives support.”
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, told Radio National there “has to be a reckoning” about anger online, calling out “companies making billions of dollars off making Australians angry and disrespectful”. She didn’t mention digital duty of care specifically, but touched on some of its main aims.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, wouldn’t draw specific links between social media or DDOC and the alleged attack on Haines, but last week called for “an honest conversation about the broader online…