Members of parliament can face threats from disgruntled people with “mixed ideologies” and others who make highly sexualised threats, a police commissioner has warned.
In the wake of the alleged attack on independent Victorian MP Helen Haines on October 19, South Australian acting Police Commissioner Linda Williams delivered a security briefing to SA MPs on Thursday.
“Following (that incident) we felt it was necessary to come and talk to members of parliament and provide information regarding their safety and security, and to give them some helpful advice,” she said outside parliament.
“What we see is some people who have what we call mixed ideologies, and they might be dissatisfied with things that are occurring in their life.
“And sometimes, if that decision has been made by a government department or agency, they might see politicians as the embodiment of that decision … (and) they somehow attribute … their unhappiness to those public figures.”
In the briefing, the commissioner highlighted that female MPs were subject to “very highly sexualised threats and intimidation, and that's particularly concerning”.
The briefing also followed stalking cautions being issued to a 44-year-old Adelaide man on Tuesday in relation to two SA MPs.
“We do take those offences very seriously - as you've seen in the last couple of days, we have dealt with a certain individual in regards to stalking … we want to deal with these behaviours as quickly as possible to stop them from escalating,” Ms Williams said.
Education Minister Lucy Hood, and Member for Elizabeth Ella Shaw, made public statements about the stalking cautions on Wednesday, revealing they were the MPs involved.
Ms Shaw said the man had messaged her non-stop for six months, and she had been followed to her car at a community event.
"It was just unwanted behaviour," she said.
"We receive abusive comments online regularly, but when we are receiving inappropriate, unwanted commentary in our messages, that's a disconnect with it being on the screen."
Ms Hood said she had interactions with the man dating back three years and was “quite devastated” to learn that her colleague had experienced the same behaviour from the same man.
“I was hoping it was an isolated case in my instance," Ms Hood said.
"My concern is that that level of discourse we see online is spilling over the keyboard into real life and then it's almost giving permission for people to use that abhorrent behaviour and language ... in person."
Ms Williams said police had warned MPs that these types of behaviours might be more prevalent.
“Whilst the current threat environment is very stable and there's no particular threat against any South Australian parliamentarians, these matters can escalate quickly,” she said.
