An Australian man has been charged with threatening staff at a lawmaker’s office with nunchucks, police said on Thursday, days after another politician was critically injured when a man allegedly struck her with a car.
The incidents have raised concerns about the safety of female politicians and security in Australia, where elected representatives have traditionally been accessible to the public and political violence has been rare.
Police said a 56-year-old man entered the electorate office of Western Australian state minister Hannah Beazley in suburban Perth on Wednesday, brandishing nunchucks and making verbal threats. Beazley was not present at the time.
The man was detained and charged with being armed in a way that may cause fear and threatening to perform an unlawful act. He remained in police custody overnight and was due to appear in a Perth court on Thursday.
Beazley said two staff members had been “rattled” but remained safe behind a security screen. She said the man had demanded to see her and that his motives were unknown.
Police said there was no allegation linking the incident to Monday’s attack on federal lawmaker Helen Haines in Victoria.
Lawmaker remains in critical condition
Haines, 65, remained in critical condition at a Melbourne hospital on Thursday, where surgeons had amputated both her legs, according to a health department statement.
The alleged attacker, Brendan Nugent, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official. He did not enter pleas and remains in custody. Police are still investigating the motive.
Concerns over threats against women
The incidents have renewed concerns about violence and intimidation directed at women in Australian politics. Just under half of federal lawmakers and a majority of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Cabinet are women.
Albanese described the timing of the threat against Beazley, shortly after the alleged attack on Haines, as “just heartbreaking”.
“We can have debate and disagreement, but do it in a way without descending into the sort of violence that we have seen in too many parts of the world,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Albanese also attended an online security briefing this week for women lawmakers from his centre-left Labor Party, where security agencies addressed misogynistic threats against them.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn said she had also faced abuse on social media after appearing at a news conference on Wednesday alongside Haines’ husband, Phil Haines.
“Women across the country know that there are certain things that are reserved for women in that attack that go to our gender and they are often vicious and just despicable,” Mostyn told the ABC.
