• Analysis
Albanese promises swift response on MP safety as panic buttons for politicians weighed
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised a swift government response to safety threats against MPs and is weighing duress alarms, or panic buttons, for electorate offices, telling the first Labor partyroom meeting since the alleged attack on Helen Haines that this week must be a turning point.
Turning point pledged at partyroom
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the first Labor partyroom meeting since the alleged attack on Indi MP Helen Haines the previous week to promise a swift government response to the safety threats facing MPs, and floated the provision of duress alarms for electorate offices.
In a long address, Albanese said this week must be a turning point for civil discourse and for how threats against politicians are answered. He said MPs had had to put up with the threat environment for too long, and that more could and should be done.
"I'm determined to make sure we do everything for your safety and the safety of your staff as well."
Panic buttons among options under consideration
Numerous MPs have raised the prospect of receiving duress alarms, or panic buttons, to alert authorities when a safety incident occurs, and the idea is among a series of options the government is considering.
Other concerns under consideration include:
- •Hardening electoral offices to improve electorate office security
- •Better communication with the federal police as part of parliamentary security
- •Home security resources such as CCTV and lighting for MPs' private residences
Home affairs minister Tony Burke told the meeting the government was also looking at safety at polling booths around election time.
Government sources said a fulsome response and proposal are likely to be revealed in coming days. Labor will also expedite an ongoing review into Commonwealth workplaces, with safety and security recommendations due soon.
Opposition briefed on talks
On the Coalition side, opposition leader Angus Taylor told his MPs in a partyroom meeting of ongoing conversations with the government about personal safety, though he raised no specific proposals.
Payman presses PM on office staffing and threats
At a Senate estimates hearing on Monday night, Fatima Payman, who quit Labor in 2024 to sit on the crossbench, lashed out at the prime minister over staffing for her office.
"Is the prime minister waiting for something, like what happened to Dr Helen Haines, to occur to my office?"
According to an internal document tabled at the hearing, Payman has zero advisers while 16 other crossbench MPs and senators share 30 advisers. She asked minister Don Farrell whether the shortfall was due to Albanese having a personal gripe with her, and said her staff were burning out.
Farrell and other Labor senators strongly rejected the insinuation, but Payman refused to withdraw the comments when asked until her staffing request was dealt with.
Payman has also detailed the toll of threats on her office. Last week she said there had been a massive increase in death threats and hate comments since 2024. She said her office manager opened mail last year containing human faeces, resulting in a biohazard team having to respond, adding that no office or worker should ever have to deal with that kind of treatment.
Government sources said a fulsome response and proposal are likely to be revealed in coming days, while the Commonwealth workplaces review is expedited with safety and security recommendations due soon.
