The horrendous and shocking violence experienced by MP for Indi, Helen Haines has shown us, in technicolour, that public life is not safe. Helen is known for her moderate approach, her lack of affiliation with party politics and her deep commitment to community. If Helen isn’t safe, then none of us are. But in particular women in public life are not safe. We are targets of hate and abuse at profoundly higher rates than men. According to Pathways to Politics – a national mentoring program for women that I have attended – global research shows that abuse directed at women is overwhelmingly gendered, personal and sexualised. It’s meant to delegitimise our authority, to silence, and enforce threatened patriarchal structures. If you ever needed proof that the world hates us, and domestic violence stats aren’t enough, this is it. It’s a war on women.
Former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody has noted that no woman in public office escapes sexualised and misogynistic violence. My experience affirms this. Every woman I know in public life has experienced threats, abuse and harassment. This is women across the political spectrum. Conservative women, progressive women, radical women and moderate women. Women like Helen Haines, who is now facing the real life consequences of unaddressed gendered political violence.
I too have lived experience of abuse and threats. Since I started campaigning in 2020 I have been on the receiving end of both funded targeted personal abuse from third-party orgs, and derision and personal abuse and threats from numerous individuals. It has gotten so bad that I’ve had restraining orders against some, and one occasion that required four police from the Fixated Persons Unit in Sydney to travel here and investigate. That was when it was believed that my life was at risk.
And I’m not even a politician. I am a community member running in an election, with no more power or influence than the next person. And as I write this, a well-known individual is currently posting an edited clip of me as part of a personal attack on community Facebook pages. Just over a week ago a woman in public office was almost murdered. Yet nothing is learnt. The connecting lines are not drawn by admins or regulators. The hate and personal attacks continue on all women in politics. Hate feeds violence. It dehumanises. It’s dangerous. While I feel alone, I know I am not alone. This is happening to us all. To my colleagues, my collaborators, and my political adversaries. We need it to stop.
This abuse has a purpose. It is meant to scare and intimidate. Personally I find this material disturbing. It messes with your head, it gives you a strange sensation that you are being watched. Perpetrators of online violence are going through your digital bins – looking for anything that might harm you. Does it hurt? Yes. Does it scare? Yes. Does it stop other women entering politics? Absolutely. That’s what it’s meant to do. You have to deliver an impossible kind of resilience to live with the sick feeling you get of being a hate target.
A culture of hate and division has emboldened online violence. Stroll through any MP’s, or even my, Facebook feed and you’ll find polite disagreement is in the minority. It’s abuse, and hate that is normalised in many communications. Some are bots. Some are real. Hate bots boost the algorithm so real haters turn up. It’s sick. And it’s unchecked.
What has happened to us? Are we no longer able to engage in political discourse of disagreement without becoming savage, vile and personal? Hate is a radicalising force, and online abuse is abuse.
Safety advice for parliamentarians and people in public office is bizarre. Being told not to attend, or at least don’t publicise attending, events is like telling a firefighter not to attend a fire. Being in the community is what elected reps are elected to do.
Real safety only comes when hate and division is addressed. Give people somewhere safe to live, mental health support, a liveable income, a purpose and sense of future, and perhaps then they won’t be susceptible to committing acts of violence.
Safety isn’t elected reps hiding in our homes. It’s about what happens in the community. In the dark digital radicalising spaces being funded to divide us.
As we send love and admiration to the remarkable Helen Haines, let’s also send her something more meaningful. Something she has dedicated her life to: change.
Examine the conditions that led to this.
Stop the violence.
Mandy Nolan’s column has appeared in The Echo for almost 25 years. She is a writer, comedian and artist, is the preselected Greens candidate for Ballina and was the Greens candidate at the past two federal elections.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
