I rise to express my solidarity with the member for Indi and wish her strength and a good recovery. Like for everyone here, over the past several days, Helen hasn't been far from my mind. My thoughts are also with her family, friends, team and community. We are all desperately looking forward to her recovery. The outpouring of love and care from every segment of the community has been overwhelming, for good reason. Helen represents the best in us—a hard-working, intelligent and decent person defined by her kindness, empathy and compassion. She is well loved by her constituents and respected across the parliament. Over the weekend, I had a series of community events, including a barbecue at Catherine Hill Bay, where many average Australians expressed horror at the event and sympathy for Helen and her family. I had a meeting at my Shortland federal electorate council yesterday where a motion was passed by the branch members wishing her a speedy recovery.

As everyone knows, before politics, she served her community in health care as a nurse and a midwife and was an incredible advocate, and still is an incredible advocate, for rural and regional communities. One thing we've heard many times over the past several days is that Helen is a fighter. She's been presented with a mighty challenge, one which I have no doubt she'll overcome. Like everyone here, I'm looking forward to seeing her out and about again in her electorate, with her community and in this building.

The thing about politics is that everything that happens is in the public domain—our wins, our losses and our struggles. We feel the public mood—their passion and hopes as well as their anger and despair. We're often on the front line of the battles people care most about. In this work, I've noticed a significant rise in violence and abuse—the culture of aggression. Our government has talked for years about the importance of lowering the temperature and the direct link between language used in public debate and violence in the community. Unfortunately, we've seen a significant rise in the number of threats to high office holders in recent years. In 2024-25, the Federal Police recorded 951 incidents of harassing or threatening behaviour. In 2025-26, this rose to 1,067. There is definitely a broader mood at play. But it's not just politicians who feel it. Anyone in a public-facing role—first responders and people who work in retail and hospitality as well—are feeling this rise in anger and violence.

We must never tolerate abuse or harassment, not in the workplace and not anywhere. Copping abuse is never part of anyone's job. We should never let disagreement be a carriage for violence. When we allow aggression to grow in any form, we embolden those who seek to perpetrate harm. Violence and intimidation have no place in our democracy. That applies across party lines and across ideological divisions. Words have power. As leaders in our communities, we have a responsibility to promote discourse that is constructive and respectful. It's important to recognise that this aggression doesn't fall on everyone equally. Vulnerable communities, people who are new to this country, Indigenous Australians and women cop it more, and this is something we must not ignore. We need to foster a culture where disagreement does not divide us, where we can have different opinions and still be friends, where we respect difference and where we appreciate it. As a nation, we are diverse and we are free. That's one of our greatest strengths, and we must protect it.

The safety of our communities depends on the safety of those who serve them. This is a really tough time for many in this building, especially Helen's staff, some of whom were witnesses to the horrific incident. That is a terrible trauma to carry. My heart goes out to them, and I hope they're okay. While the motivation for the attack is not yet known, it's a shocking reminder that we need to turn the temperature down on political debate. As Phil Haines himself has said, Australian political leaders have a choice. They can tame or inflame the great fear that is out there. They can use this opportunity, this event, to spike the national fever and choose a better path. I certainly agree with his sentiments. Moving in the other direction to inflame this great fear would be unthinkably destructive to our democracy and our way of life. We owe it to the member for Indi and to our democracy to do the opposite, to choose a better path. Helen, your colleagues and friends across this chamber are all thinking of you, and we wish you the very best for your recovery.