Rape and death threats shouldn’t be dismissed as a normal part of my job

Follow our live coverage of the alleged attack on Indi MP Helen Haines here. 

I’ve worked as a GP in a community health centre in Helen Haines’ rural Victorian electorate of Indi. I’ve also served the same regional community as deputy mayor of Albury, just across the Murray River.

It’s an accurate cliche that rural and regional communities are connected. We all either know Helen personally, or her family, her staff, the courageous bystanders who assisted her, or the health workers who cared for her.

Our regional community is reeling from the violent attack on Helen that will no doubt have lasting impacts after the news cycle has moved on. As I write this, we are still anxiously awaiting updates on Helen – we know that she has lost at least her leg and remains in a critical condition.

So many people across the country have been deeply shaken by this incident, too.

Helen is an unusually well-respected politician. But that’s not the only reason so many of us are so distressed by what happened.

It’s not clear yet what motivated this attack. There’s no shortage of commentators wanting to shape the narrative of events to suit their agenda. Whether this was a targeted attack on a particular MP, or government institutions more generally, gendered violence or someone who didn’t get the support they needed for mental illness or addiction, or a combination of factors – not one of these explanations would be comforting.

Abuse and threats against elected representatives, and particularly women, are getting worse. Rape and death threats shouldn’t be dismissed as a normal part of this job. I’ve been stalked and harassed. Even threats that aren’t acted on can impact our ability to do the job we were elected to do.

It’s not just politicians who are experiencing increased aggression. We are privileged to have a platform to talk about it. Hatred and attacks on people based on race, sexuality and gender identity are increasing. We know too well that each week, on average, a woman is killed by her partner.

These are different problems that end in violence, but their root causes are related. Preventing violence means addressing the causes, not just hand-wringing about “turning the temperature down”.

Life is getting harder for many, with a widening gap between rich and poor. People with mental health issues struggle to access the care they need. Many feel public institutions don’t include them in decisions or represent their interests. Social isolation, economic insecurity and inequality are risk factors that can increase a person’s susceptibility to extremism. Social media algorithms are driving people into echo chambers where taking the nuance out of debate and rage-inciting misinformation is rewarded.

Helen’s work gets to the heart of these issues. She has fought for years to fix the inequity of access to healthcare in rural Australia and to take corruption out of politics. The “kitchen table conversations” she champions enable face-to-face connection, open and honest dialogue about issues that impact people’s day-to-day lives, and between people with different views.

Helen is someone who consistently strives to bring people together. Separating elected representatives from the communities we represent with security details, motorcades or bulletproof glass is not the way to build a healthy democracy that we can all participate in.

At some point, we will find out what motivated the attack on Helen Haines, but I expect that the answer will offer little comfort when we can all feel that our communities are getting less safe. It doesn’t matter how many politicians condemn violence this week if the conditions that drive it aren’t meaningfully addressed.

I can’t speak for Helen – and in fact, we disagree on many things – but I suspect she would want this horrific incident to catalyse more than just kind words about her. I know I’m not the only one hoping with bated breath for her to be able to return to work and tell us herself.

Dr Amanda Cohn is a Greens member of the NSW Legislative Council based in Albury-Wodonga.