Oct 22, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
After the attack on Independent MP Helen Haines, it's been a real horror week in Australian politics. Last week *SMH* and *The Age* columnist Waleed Aly wrote a column titled…
Waleed AlyGuestJacqueline MaleyHostI want to examine you further on that in a moment, because there'll be a lot of people listening to the podcast who think, I don't participate in that kind of politics.
But, I mean, the phenomenon that you wrote about and that we're talking about that's dominating discussion this week, I think we can fairly safely assume that it is a thing and that's not just a sort of assertion or a contention at this stage, that the statistics bear it out as well as a wealth of anecdotal evidence.
I just want to ask you what your thoughts are on the causes of this phenomenon, this growing phenomenon.
By this, I think what I'm talking about is threats to parliamentarians, but also a growing acceptance or growing number of people who accept the possibility that violence might be legitimate under some circumstances.
At small levels, the particular survey I quoted in the column last week was from the McKinnon Index, which found that 9% of Australians are prepared to say that violence is sometimes legitimate.
But then there are also factors that I think we need to pay more attention to, which are, how would I describe these? Factors that are to do with our habits, our civic habits, our disposition, our way of doing business.
Because when we start to say that violence might sometimes be a legitimate way of doing politics, We're not...
We might think what we're doing is fighting for a particular cause or elevating something that's really important.
I want to examine you further on that in a moment, because there'll be a lot of people listening to the podcast who think, I don't participate in that kind of politics.
But, I mean, the phenomenon that you wrote about and that we're talking about that's dominating discussion this week, I think we can fairly safely assume that it is a thing and that's not just a sort of assertion or a contention at this stage, that the statistics bear it out as well as a wealth of anecdotal evidence.
I just want to ask you what your thoughts are on the causes of this phenomenon, this growing phenomenon.
By this, I think what I'm talking about is threats to parliamentarians, but also a growing acceptance or growing number of people who accept the possibility that violence might be legitimate under some circumstances.
At small levels, the particular survey I quoted in the column last week was from the McKinnon Index, which found that 9% of Australians are prepared to say that violence is sometimes legitimate.
But then there are also factors that I think we need to pay more attention to, which are, how would I describe these? Factors that are to do with our habits, our civic habits, our disposition, our way of doing business.
Because when we start to say that violence might sometimes be a legitimate way of doing politics, We're not...
We might think what we're doing is fighting for a particular cause or elevating something that's really important.
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