Last Friday, I went to visit St Aidan's. It's a girls' school in my local electorate, on Brisbane's south side in the suburb of Corinda. I went there to talk about democracy. While we were there, I talked with them about the Greek origins of demos kratos. We spoke about the importance of robust debate. We role-played what we do in this place. When I asked if there were any questions at the end, their eyes brightened and a sea of arms shot up into the air. We didn't talk about political violence, and I hope for a world, when they grow up, where they won't have to.

I want to thank the member for Bradfield very much for bringing this important debate to this place. It's important, particularly in a year when we've seen 1,067 incidents of harassing or threatening behaviour toward members of parliament. But can I boldly say that I believe it to be incomplete, because violence and threats are not exclusive to this chamber. Violence and threats are increasing across our community. We see it with school teachers going to a place where young people are to learn. We see it with nurses going to hospitals to look after our most unwell. We see it with ambos coming to people at a time of emergency, and we see it in shops and retail where people are simply going to do their job. No-one should ever go to work and experience threats. No-one should ever go to work and expect to see violence. At its core, it poses a very important question for us as a nation: who are we and who do we seek to be? Those primary values that we hold so dear—of respect, of a fair go, of dignity—sit at a massive mismatch to what we are seeing right now.

That's why our government has been talking for a long time about turning that temperature down and about the link that exists between what happens in the public discourse and violence that we have seen in our communities. I do want to mention the provision of the additional $17 million to protective services and electorate offices. I do want to mention the National Security Investigations teams set up to investigate those threats. I do want to mention the 41 individuals that have been charged and the parliamentary workplace support services we have developed with specialised training including safety training.

We are a country of robust debate. That's important here. But robust debate cannot and certainly does not negate accountability. Robust debate does not negate respect. Robust debate does not negate being kind to one another every day, whether that be in the flesh or online. We know that threats are increasing online. We know that the landscape that our children will face is a different one to the one that we grew up on. It's why a digital duty of care is so important. If big tech can spend billions of dollars to get you hooked, they should be able to save you from harm. When we talk about civility and constructive discourse, it's often hard to define. But it's easy to spot. We saw it yesterday in those words about Helen. At a time when our thoughts and our prayers are with her, her family, her community and her staff, we feel the collective weight of the realities of that violence, and we will continue to work with the expert agencies to keep people safe and to keep this place respectful so that those girls in State Aidan's and all Australian children will inherit something better than what we have now.