The cardboard cockatoo, the empty seat and a parliament’s reckoning with rage

An orange cardboard cockatoo was perched where Helen Haines would usually sit in the House of Representatives on Monday. Her colleagues placed it there in a nod to the woman they called the matriarch of the crossbench.

Cockatoos had been the symbol of Haines’ grassroots political campaign; she once explained that her regional Victorian electorate regarded them as a symbol of “community flocking together to build a vibrant democracy”.

Now the Australian parliament was being forced to reflect on what that meant.

Last week’s rare act of violence against one parliamentarian has prompted the rest of them to interrogate what’s holding Australia’s democracy together, what’s threatening it and what role we all play in that dynamic.

Seven days after Haines was deliberately struck by a car outside her office, MPs stood to share their reflections.

Not everyone had the answer – their diagnoses for rising violence spanned online polarisation, male aggression, media hostility, political language, poor mental health services – but there was one point on which all MPs agreed. If anyone modelled the type of person to maintain a respectful but robust public square, it was Haines.

When Haines woke after the surgery, having lost both her legs, her first words were concern for her staff and gratitude to first responders, her husband Phil told MPs on Monday. “That exactly speaks to the character of who you are,” independent Allegra Spender said in her tribute.

“In this place where we often disagree, Helen has always shown that respect and courtesy go hand in hand,” said Speaker of the House Milton Dick.

“There is much discussion on how we as a parliament can work on showing respect to one another. Today I can say this is a moment for all of us to rise to the challenge.”

Central to that debate is how much of a role words play inciting violence – and the words uttered by politicians in particular.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent months talking about “turning down the temperature”. On Monday he said there was no way to shrug off “the very real rise in anger that distorts and corrodes our public discourse”.

“Enabled by the anonymity and speed afforded by social media, we are seeing rage and aggression increasing,” he said.

“We must not conflate the robustness of Australian democracy with this rising tide of rage … We cannot allow disagreement to become a full stop.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was sceptical of the framing.

“It’s been suggested by some that there is a causal connection between robust parliamentary debate and political violence. I disagree with this view. Our democratic system has served us well,” he said.

“Importantly, we debate with adversarial vigour. But we never allow that vigorous parliamentary debate to spill over into violence.”

The antidote, he believed, was to strengthen the system by celebrating Australia more readily.

Monique Ryan, a close friend of Haines, emphasised other points. Male violence was a problem, while global instability and economic insecurity tore at the social fabric.

“All of us in this place bear some responsibility for the corrosion in public discourse. But the media also bears responsibility for turning anxiety into outrage and for amplifying grievance for more clicks,” she said.

Some MPs turned the blowtorch on themselves. Defence Minister Richard Marles named a classic political reflex: when losing an argument, play the person.

“If analysis and reason doesn’t quite get us there, if we deny the humanity of our opponent, we can still win. I’ve done it,” he said.

“But I have never seen it from Helen Haines. It’s as if she understands that to deny the humanity of an opponent is to cede the humanity of oneself.”

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie conceded there were times he, too, had overreached. “In moments like this one we can reflect on how we can do better,” he said. “Let’s play the ball, not the person, and leave the nasty personal politics of MAGA in the United States.”

The heroes of last week who rushed to Haines’ aid were also praised: Ricky Jefferies, Xavier Norden, Jacob Evans, Jacklyn Black, Cody Lepoidevin.

“Ricky knew the first responders helping Helen because he cut their hair, not because of social media networks, and there’s something in that,” Hastie said. “We thrive as a nation when we are in community with our neighbours; when we are known by them and they are known by us.”

That’s why Labor’s Ged Kearney chose to honour Haines by being physically present in her electorate on the weekend. “I walked the streets among kids in Halloween costumes, I went to listen to music, I attended a fete, I had lunch in a cafe, visited a Scouts party,” Kearney said.

There was recognition that others also bear the brunt of a fractured society’s anger – the frontline workers, from nurses to bus drivers through to the young referees at children’s Saturday sport.

“What happened to Helen deserves all of us to think about what we can do to protect our democracy, to look after each other, to be kinder and more compassionate,” said Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek.

“Be patient, be kinder. Smile at a stranger, let someone go ahead of you in a queue. Listen carefully. Try and see something from someone else’s point of view.”

She was one of several MPs who quoted Haines’ own maiden speech as they contemplated what could be learnt from her example. “Life is short, family is everything and there is honour in the service of others,” Haines had said in 2019.

MPs gestured to the cockatoo in Haines’ vacant seat as they shared hopes she would continue her service soon. “We look forward to the day you return to this place,” said Speaker Milton Dick. “And I get to say the following nine words: I give the call to the member for Indi.”

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