Today is about the member for Indi, it is about Helen, and it is about Helen's family. It is also about Helen's team, who stand beside her and serve the community she represents, and it is about standing with Helen's family, friends and community in solidarity and in support. The attack on Helen Haines has rightly shocked Australians. Helen has spent a lifetime caring for people in their most vulnerable moments. She is a person of genuine decency and compassion. She has brought those same qualities to this House and carries the respect of colleagues across this parliament. It is shocking that this was a deliberate act of violence. Whatever the motivation, it demands that we confront some uncomfortable realities about the environment in which we conduct our politics.

I've seen overseas what happens when politicians travel with guards and are physically separated from the communities they represent. That separation changes the nature of public service. It fundamentally changes the relationship between representatives and the people they serve. Security takes the place of accessibility, caution replaces conversation, and the distance between representatives and the people they represent grows. This cannot become a new norm. In Australia, people should be able to approach their local MP at a community event, raise difficult issues, express their views and expect a direct conversation. They should be able to disagree with their representatives and hold them accountable. That access is not a privilege granted by politicians; it is fundamental to representative democracy. A strong democracy can withstand fierce disagreement. It should welcome challenge and make room for passionate debate, strong criticism and competing views. But there must be an unequivocal line. Threats and violence are never acceptable as a means of influencing public life, nor should they ever prevent representatives from doing the work in the communities we represent, including when it is communities where we may have grown up and still live.

The consequences are not confined to those of us who are elected. Our officers receive threatening calls, letters and approaches. My time in public office and the period leading up to it have been marked by divisive attacks directed at me, my staff and volunteers by those seeking to exploit division for political gain. They should have no place in our democracy. That is not political debate, it is not legitimate scrutiny, and it is not something we should shrug off as an inevitable consequence of public life.

There are realities of public life that cannot be separated from family. Our families understand these sacrifices. They make them alongside us. But, when threats enter the picture, that worry follows families into the moments that should otherwise be ordinary. They did not choose to be part of public life in this way. The same is true of the people who work in our offices. Our staff should be able to serve our communities without being subjected to threats and intimidation. Scrutiny, responsibility and accountability are one thing, but threats and intimidation must never be the price of doing any job or carrying any responsibility in our society, whether it is directed at our nurses and doctors in emergency departments, our first responders, retail staff in supermarkets, hospitality workers, teachers or our gig and public transport workers. As the Prime Minister has said, we need to turn the temperature down.

Our security agencies have an important role to play in assessing threats and protecting people at risk. They cannot on their own protect the standards of behaviour on which a healthy democracy depends. That responsibility belongs to all of us. It belongs to political leaders, in the language we use and the standards we set, and it belongs to every member of society and the behaviour we are prepared to accept. I am optimistic for Australia.

To Helen: I am sorry that you and your family are having to endure this terrible act of violence. You should have been able to do your work, serve your community and return home safely to those you love. You are in our thoughts and prayers. We wish you strength in your recovery, and we look forward to seeing you back with your family and your community and amongst us in this House.