Australian politics live: Lambie awaiting Hanson apology over cartoon; security crackdown for nine MPs after alleged Haines attack

Key events

Security reviews ramp up for MP offices over attack fears

Some politicians will receive security updates in their electorate offices after raising concerns about threats in the wake of the alleged attack on Helen Haines.

At least nine MPs will have security crackdowns accelerated for their electorate offices, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, confirmed, after they raised concerns last week.

Security in Parliament House’s public places will also be stepped up.

– Australian Associated Press

Jacinda Ardern joins University of Sydney as lecturer and mentor

In news adjacent to federal politics, former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed she will lecture and mentor at the University of Sydney after moving to Australia earlier this year.

Based in the school of public health, she will host guest lectures and masterclasses and engage in mentoring.

Read more here:

Teal and regional independent backers were Farrer independent’s top donors

Continued from the previous post:

The top donor, Regional Voices Fund, backs independent candidates in regional seats while the second-highest donor, Keldoulis Investments, owned by Robert Keldoulis, is a major backer of Climate 200 – the funding vehicle that supports teal independents in getting elected.

Overall, Milthorpe spent $1,708,845 on her campaign, receiving $1,680,439 in donations and gifts.

Candidates endorsed by political parties, like Farley, are able to defer the campaign spending reports until February the following year when political party annual returns are published.

As a result, Farley’s electoral returns show he spent only $5,119 on his campaign and received no donations. This figure will likely be updated in February.

Farrer independent spent $1.7m on byelection campaign, electoral returns show

The independent candidate, Michelle Milthorpe, received almost $1.7m in donations from more than 5,000 donors in her campaign against One Nation in the seat of Farrer earlier this year, electoral returns show.

Milthorpe, backed by regional independents, including Helen Haines, ultimately lost the battle to One Nation’s David Farley in Sussan Ley’s former seat, 42.45% to Farley’s 57.55% on a two-party preferred basis.

The returns data, released by the Australian Electoral Commission yesterday, shows $670,653 of the total amount – or about 40% – donated was over the declaration threshold of $17,300.

The top donors for Milthorpe include:

Regional Voices Fund Pty Ltd: $215,000

Keldoulis Investments Pty Limited: $117,000

Keep Them Honest Pty Ltd: $75,000

Climate 200 Pty Limited: $61,653

More respectful discourse is ‘what Helen Haines would want’: Richard Marles

The defence minister, Richard Marles, hopes politicians continue to show respect and civility for more than a day, following the outpouring of support for independent Helen Haines:

I really hope that all of us can do better … we need to really try and collectively engage in bringing the temperature down, and have a much more respectful and civil discourse.

And I know that’s what Helen Haines would want.

Political debate should be ‘robust but respectful’: Ruston

A day after MPs addressed the House of Representatives paying tribute to independent Helen Haines, who was injured after an alleged attack in her electorate, Liberal senator Anne Ruston maintains that respect is necessary in political debate.

She told ABC Radio :

What we do here sets the tone for what the rest of the nation thinks is acceptable.

There is a huge responsibility on politicians, not to shy away from robust debate. I don’t want anyone to think that we shouldn’t be having strong debate.

Governments need to be held to account for their decisions and that’s our job and we should keep doing it.

You can be robust and strong, but still be respectful.

Katy Gallagher calls for social media platforms to be held accountable for online abuse

Minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says the volume, scale and forcefulness of threats and abusive language has increased during her time in politics.

This follows reporting from the ABC that found almost 5,000 threats and violent comments were flagged on the social media accounts of 22 Labor politicians in three months by an AI tool.

Gallagher told ABC Radio :

It’s simply out of control in an online world and we’ve got to make the platforms accountable.

Facebook is the worst in terms of the platforms, Instagram and TikTok less so, but still bad.

The platforms have to help us here because, the way it’s going now, our accounts are just a place for people to come and abuse pretty vigorously.

Greens to announce plan for Victorian lobbyist register

The Victorian Greens will today announce an election commitment to establish a lobbyist register and ban political donations from “big corporate money”.

The party said there would be a legislated register for lobbyists and a ban on political donations from the gambling industry, fossil fuel companies and property developers.

Victoria has a $7,500 cap on donations but only foreign donations are banned. The state has a lobbyist register – but the only sanction available is the removal of a lobbyist from that register. Guardian Australia last year reported no lobbyist has been sanctioned in Victoria since the latest code of conduct was introduced by the Napthine government in 2013.

Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, says the state’s laws have allowed corporations to influence politics in the state:

These corporations don’t hand over thousands of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect something in return, and it’s everyday Victorians who end up paying the price.

Former Rio Tinto boss to lead defence procurement watchdog

Former mining boss Kellie Parker will lead the new defence agency overseeing the delivery of projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Albanese government will announce Parker, who used to run Rio Tinto’s Australian business, has been appointed to the role of national armaments director for five years.

She begins next month at the new independent defence delivery agency which was set up in response to cost blowouts and lacklustre project management.

Defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, pointed to Parker’s experience in bringing cultural change to the mining company after the destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020.

He said other senior female appointments including the first woman to lead the army, Lt Gen Susan Coyle, were merit-based.

They’ve both dealt with male-dominated industries with cultures that are pretty rough and challenging for women, and so they’re perfect people to lead that cultural journey.

Malicious actors using AI to find vulnerabilities, defence minister warns

The defence minister, Richard Marles, is doing the rounds this morning to address the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) annual cyber threat report.

It warns Australians to prepare for more basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly and urges businesses and critical infrastructure to use cutting-edge AI models to defend against digital threats.

Marles told News24 this morning:

If you’ve got an old system which is attached to the internet, it is effectively a gateway to a malicious actor. You’ve really got to prioritise hardening your system, even if that’s at the expense of access to it.

Malicious actors, are now able to use AI to find vulnerabilities in the systems of organisations and companies, and they’re doing that to exploit them.

Female and First Nations public servants facing ‘more egregious’ abuse online, parliament hears

A departmental boss has warned female public servants receive more “more egregious forms of abuse” on social media after complaints from bureaucrats about what they claim is selective clipping of evidence being posted online.

Last month, the Secretaries Board, which includes heads of departments, asked the government to introduce rules restricting testimony from being uploaded to X and Instagram.

They argued the clips were exposing public servants to ridicule and abuse, but their bid has been dismissed as an attempt to limit public accountability.

Steven Kennedy, secretary of the department of the prime minister and cabinet, told a parliamentary hearing yesterday:.

I would note that secretaries have observed that it is often female public servants and those from First Nations … backgrounds who experience the more egregious forms of abuse on social media.

Thanks, Martin Farrer! I’ll steer us through politics for the rest of the morning.

Liberal candidate’s husband allegedly assaulted in Melbourne confrontation

The husband of a Victorian Liberal party candidate has allegedly been assaulted during a confrontation over election signs.

A Liberal party spokesperson on Monday evening confirmed the husband of their candidate for Yan Yean, Amanda Dow, was involved in an alleged incident in Mernda yesterday afternoon.

They said:

We understand Ms Dow’s husband approached a member of the public who was removing Liberal party campaign signage and was allegedly assaulted.

He suffered facial injuries and was taken to hospital and was discharged today.

Police confirmed a 59-year-old Mernda man had been charged with recklessly causing injury, criminal damage and unlawful assault over the incident, which they alleged occurred near Abundant Avenue and Bridge Inn Road at about 2pm yesterday.

Police have been told the victim attended an address to retrieve political campaign signage when he was [allegedly] assaulted.

They said the man has been bailed to appear before Heidelberg magistrates’ court on 1 February 2027.

Lambie says Hanson hasn’t personally apologised over cartoon

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has yet to personally apologise to her over her party’s “Please Explain” cartoon that poked fun at her medical condition, as the candidate behind the cartoon refuses to apologise.

Hanson publicly apologised for the cartoon that depicted Lambie saying “I can’t laugh because of my prolapsed vagina” and the video was subsequently removed from online platforms.

However, Lambie told ABC’s 7.30 last night that Hanson “hasn’t emailed, messaged, even sent me a nice little card and said, ‘I’m really sorry for doing that’”.

Mark Nicholson – who is running in the Victorian state election for One Nation and is cofounder of Stepmates Studio which makes the cartoons – told 7.30 it was his job to “pick on people in the public realm” and he would not apologise:

Not right now. If I do anything that is apology-worthy, I’ll apologise.

Nicholson claimed he had “drawn quite a lot of attention” to the medical issue, rather than trivialising it.

Lambie said Nicholson should drop out of the election.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Kat Wong with the main action.