Threat reports involving federal MPs can run to “pages and pages” in a single day, amid a sharp increase in abuse directed at Australia’s elected representatives, AFP Commissioner Chrissy Barrett has revealed.
Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, Barrett told host David Speers that she personally reviewed threat reports each morning.
“I would challenge anybody to read some of these threats and some of the abuse that is reported to us from federal parliamentarians, and for anyone to argue that that is free speech or political discourse,” she said.
Barrett spoke as detectives continued to investigate the motive behind the alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines, saying that determining why it happened remained the investigation’s central focus.
Investigators are examining a range of possible factors, including the accused man’s mental health and his activity on social media, Barrett said.
Haines’s condition improved from critical to serious but stable on Saturday, after she spent more than four days in hospital.
The independent MP sustained severe injuries, including the loss of both legs, when she was struck by a vehicle outside her electorate office on Monday.
Victoria Police allege the incident was a deliberate attack.
Barrett (pictured) said investigators were examining political views and mental health as possible motivations
Brendan Nugent, 43, of Tarrawingee, has been charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and the Commonwealth offence of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official.
Barrett emphasised that the investigation remains active despite the charges being laid.
“Just because he’s now before the court, it doesn’t mean that there is not still a lot of investigative work that needs to be undertaken,” she said.
“There are devices to be analysed, evidence to be analysed and assessed, so that will remain the case for a number of weeks and months.”
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Detectives from Victoria Police, the AFP and ASIO are working to establish precisely what motivated the alleged attack, Barrett said.
“At this point in time, the primary focus of that investigation is determining what the motive is for this atrocious attack, so that is obviously front and centre in terms of what our investigators are focused on,” she said.
“There has been media reporting around his mental health, around some of the causes or issues that he has aligned himself with. That all remains part of the ongoing investigation.”
When Speers asked whether Haines had been targeted because she was a politician, Barrett said it was too early to draw conclusions.
Haines (pictured) improved from critical to serious but stable on Saturday
“Whether it was directly linked to her role as a federal parliamentarian remains front and centre for our investigators,” she said.
Barrett also revealed that authorities had no intelligence indicating Haines faced an imminent threat before the alleged attack.
‘Between ASIO, the AFP and Victoria Police, we had no information that would have suggested that she was the target of something as horrific as what has occurred last week,’ she said.
Speers noted the incident had ‘an absolutely chilling effect, not just on federal parliamentarians, but indeed on Australia as a country’ before asking whether establishing a motive was proving difficult.
Barrett said investigators are dealing with a complex set of circumstances.
‘Sometimes it is difficult to determine a clear motive,’ she said.
‘We’ve spoken about the environment, the febrile environment, we’ve spoken about the complexity of the environment, and individuals are complex as well.’
