Address Laws and Threats Push Women Out of Politics

Candidates in New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania must put their home addresses on campaign materials, a rule delegates say discourages women from running for office. Candidates in Queensland and Victoria can use PO boxes. The difference is written into the rules, but its consequences reach beyond a candidate’s doorstep.

At a recent New South Wales branch conference of the Australian Local Government Women's Association, delegates described abusive late-night calls, aggrieved constituents arriving at candidates’ homes and harassment of family members. They said publishing a personal street address is a major disincentive for female candidates. People seeking public office must weigh participation against exposure at home.

The cost of public life

A study of 288 current and five former representatives from federal, state and local government examined threats to Australian public officials’ physical safety and mental health. The Berlin-based Better Politics Foundation conducted the study, titled Fit To Lead, over the past year. It remained in draft form and was due for release the following month.

Independent MP Helen Haines advocated for the project, which aimed to map risks faced by public representatives. Her office authorised the ABC to attribute two anonymous quotations in the report’s introduction to her: “We don't want to make politics comfortable, but we do want it to be safe,” and “You shouldn't have to wear a flak jacket, physical or emotional, to do the job.” Haines suffered critical injuries in a physical attack. Police had not advanced a motive, although a man had been charged.

Half of the study’s female respondents said fears for their own safety, their family’s safety or their team’s safety had a significant or substantial effect on their wellbeing. Nearly 40 per cent said their wellbeing had at some point stopped them speaking out on issues they believed were important, said Kimberly McArthur, the foundation’s Australian-born co-CEO.

“When the job becomes this dangerous, the harm does not stay with the individual,” McArthur said. “It drives good people out of public life, and it quietly tells the next generation of leaders not to bother putting up their hand.” Most representatives surveyed would still encourage others to run for office, McArthur said. “The least we can do is make it a job worth standing for,” she said.

Threats reach the offices and homes

Over the past five years, the Australian Federal Police recorded an increase in the annual rate of threats against high office holders and federal MPs, from 300 to more than 1,000. Online and social media threats drove much of the increase. A senior Coalition figure estimated she referred a dozen threats a week to police.

Small Business Minister Anne Aly received 19 death threats in one week after an opposition MP told parliament that she and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should be “stoned in the marketplace.” On Thursday, Aly’s electorate office received a letter saying a bullet would be “too good” for her, accompanied by Bibles. Aly and her staff interpreted the package as a statement about her faith. Aly is the first Muslim woman to serve in federal parliament.

That same week, police arrested a man in Perth for behaving threateningly at the electorate office of state Labor MP Hannah Beazley while allegedly carrying nunchucks. In Brisbane, Communications Minister Anika Wells closed her electorate office after a woman carrying a replica firearm threatened the receptionist. A Bankstown man faced charges and a fine the previous year for stalking Wells.

Academic and Cumberland City councillor Diane Colman’s study of women in New South Wales local government, Not On My Council, found that 61 per cent of women councillors had experienced bullying, harassment or intimidation. The figure reflects what women elected to local councils reported facing; address-disclosure rules impose a separate, formal exposure on those campaigning for office.

Security without distance

Deputy Nationals leader Darren Chester said online threats against MPs might be under-reported. “We evaluate them ourselves as to whether they're worth forwarding to the AFP, and of course we're not really qualified to do that,” he said. Chester cautioned against making security decisions in the middle of a crisis, saying motorcades could make MPs aloof from their communities. “If you change your behaviour to the point where you're travelling around in motorcades, then you become aloof from your community, and the scumbags have won, and our democracy suffers.”

McArthur said social media contributed to elected representatives’ fear and apprehension. Traditional and social media personalities had a role in holding power to account and curbing pile-ons and rhetoric that stripped people of safety and dignity, she said. Police also had a role in taking threats seriously because harassment did not always stay online.

The study was due for release in Australia the following month by Alastair Campbell, a British podcaster, author and former adviser to Tony Blair. Its findings sit beside a practical question the rules leave unresolved: who can afford to seek office when doing so may expose their home, family and staff to threats?