Top cop’s safety warning to MPs
SA’s acting police commissioner warned the state’s politicians to “stay vigilant” amid claims of harassment and alleged stalking in a special briefing today.
SA Police acting commissioner Linda Williams has told South Australian parliamentarians the current threat environment is “stable” but to “stay vigilant” in the current environment after Victorian MP Helen Haines lost both her legs in an alleged attack.
Williams gave SA politicians a safety briefing at Parliament House today, which she said highlighted “that female MPs are subject to very highly sexualised threats and intimidation”.
It comes just days after an alleged stalker was cautioned for two unrelated incidents targeting Elizabeth MP Ella Shaw and Education Minister Lucy Hood.
Hood and Shaw came forward on Wednesday as the MPs allegedly stalked by a 44-year-old northern suburbs man, saying they were “frustrated” by the “unwanted” behaviour.
The briefing followed calls from all sides of politics to take the heat out of political discourse after federal Independent MP Helen Haines was deliberately struck outside her Wangarratta electorate office last week.
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“We’re aware that whilst the current threat environment is more stable, and there’s no particular evidence for the South Australian parliamentarians, these matters can escalate quickly,” Williams said.
“They can escalate without any warning and by and large, again, we encourage them to be vigilant about their security, to work with us, and be very cautious about any concerns that they have by talking to us, so we can help them make an assessment.
“We’ve made sure our workforce is more attuned to the actual threat environment, so that they are examining these issues with a great deal of rigour in terms of the current environment that we’re operating in.”
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SA Speaker Nat Cook, federal Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost and federal independent Rebekha Sharkie told InDaily they had all received threats of violence online and via their electorate offices.
Education Minister Lucy Hood and Premier Peter Malinauskas were targeted with abusive graffiti written on a wall in the CBD earlier this year.
Earlier this year, a post in a Facebook group called Possum Park Protection Platoon called for the Premier’s address to be shared; the post was quickly removed and condemned by the Adelaide Park Lands Association.
It comes as a community rally to “Reclaim the Night” is planned for Friday, October 30 at Parliament House – part of a global activist movement that calls for “the elimination of gendered violence and victim-blaming”.
The event includes speakers from advocacy groups including the SA Working Women’s Centre, SA Unions, SA Abortion Action Coalition, Trans Justice Adelaide, Sex Industry Network and Embolden’s Lived Experience Advisory Network.
“Ending gendered violence requires more than asking survivors to speak,” Embolden’s Lived Experience Advisory Network spokesperson Alex said.
“It requires governments to properly fund specialist services, embed lived experience in decision-making, and turn what survivors have told us into measurable action.”
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