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ESSENTIALS
— Labor women took on Meta over online threats to MPs
— Police want advance warning of MP events, AI tools to fight threats
— Read the “dirt file” Labor shopped about Helen Haines
DRIVING THE DAY
HELEN HAINES ALIVE, STABLE BUT LOSES SECOND LEG AFTER ATTACK
Independent MP Helen Haines is alive and at the beginning of a “long and difficult” road to recovery after suffering a horrific attack on Monday, her husband Phil Haines says. She remains in a critical but stable condition.
But the member for Indi had her second leg amputated yesterday morning after being repeatedly struck by a Toyota Landcruiser on Monday afternoon.
“The two most important parts of Helen for us as a family are her heart and her mind,” Phil Haines told reporters yesterday evening. “We are grateful and thankful that at this stage, both her heart and her mind are in good shape.”
Road to recovery: “[It will] be long and difficult, but we know she is a fighter. She is a determined person who will do her best, with our support and love, to recover,” he said.
“PAUSE AND CHOOSE TO BE BETTER”: The message from Governor-General Sam Mostyn, a friend of the Haines couple, who also spoke at the press conference.
“We don’t have to all agree, but we can wrestle the issue, not the person, just as Helen has done throughout her time in parliament,” she said.
“When we speak of the terrible behavior of one person with such catastrophic consequences, we must weigh that against the many thousands of Australians who have shown such care and love for Helen.”
HOW TO HELP HELEN: Phil Haines expressed gratitude to the Australians who have inundated his wife with flowers, which he said were “a great joy of hers.” But he urged them to redirect their tributes by donating to Save the Children Fund. Playbook readers can do that here.
LABOR WOMEN TOOK ON META OVER ONLINE THREATS TO MPs
The issue of safety was already top of mind when a representative from social media giant Meta was confronted by Labor women Oct. 14 about threats they have received online.
Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of safety at Meta, attended Labor’s Status of Women Committee last week and was confronted by MPs sharing their experience of abuse on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, and dissatisfaction at its lack of proactive content moderation.
According to two Labor MPs who attended the meeting and a further two MPs and two staffers who were briefed on its content, Labor women used the meeting to warn about the company’s lack of action against threats they receive online.
“Social media and Meta platforms have been disgusting for a long time,” said one MP at the meeting granted anonymity to discuss the content of a private meeting. “[Davis] came ready to give a presentation, ‘here’s how to block people, here’s how to use words to filter things out.’ … Instead, people made her aware of what we are experiencing. It was robust.”
Two MPs and two staffers asserted that Davis was surprised at the nature of threats, including rape and death threats, although Meta disputed this characterization and proferred an alternative view that she was struck by the intensity of their experience.
Read Paul Karp’s full story about the frank meeting.
CALL THE COPS: WHAT MPS WERE TOLD ON SAFETY
Risk mitigation: Playbook contacted a dozen MPs and senators who received safety briefings on Tuesday and Wednesday. The advice they were given would mitigate risk by degrees, but there’s no silver bullet.
“It’s being aware of your surroundings, communicating with the Australian Federal Police what your activities might be, and reporting any threatening conduct or contact, online or in person,” said one Labor MP.
“It’s advice like ‘let us know your diary,’” said the second MP, who questioned the practicality of carrying out that request. “I do five or six events on a Saturday. … Do they have the capacity to deal with this?”
AFP resourcing: One Labor MP asked if the AFP had enough resources, although MPs who Playbook spoke to accepted there is little an AFP officer could have done in the Haines incident.
Greg Brown at The Australian reported that several Coalition MPs complained that requests for security ahead of events were ignored or not taken seriously. Earlier, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett explained they take a risk-based approach
The briefing included the observation that Australia is not unique, the rise in threats is occurring around the world, but the threats are Australia-based. “It’s not that we’ve got foreign actors driving this; it’s Australian people,” said one Labor MP.
Crossbenchers received the same briefing at midday, a day after Coalition MPs met with the AFP. The general takeaway was the security environment has changed permanently, two Liberal MPs told us.
“We’re one of the few countries in the world where elected representatives wander around fairly freely and that looks like it is going to change,” one Liberal said.
WHAT MPS TOLD PLAYBOOK GOES THROUGH THEIR MINDS:
— “If it can happen to Helen it can happen to any of us.”
— “Should my car have my name and face on it if it parks in my front yard?”
— “Are my neighbors telling their friends where I live?”
— “How can I meet with my constituents if I can’t advertise my events?”
Constant tension: All MPs Playbook spoke to understand why the AFP is so cautious, but stressed there’s an inherent tension between protecting their safety and being accessible to voters.
Public-facing events are a necessity for parliamentarians. Regional MPs cannot meet constituents in far-flung towns without providing a heads-up.
“That’s just not practical for most MPs,” Liberal frontbencher James Paterson told the ABC.
A note sent to the Labor caucus ahead of the meeting reveals that offices have been contributing to an Independent Review of Commonwealth Parliamentary Support System, which includes safety and security of parliamentarians and their staff in their terms of reference.
A government spokesperson told Playbook: “Reviews of threats faced by high office holders are constantly conducted by our agencies. There was a major increase to funding for protection in the last budget.”
In May, at least $17 million over four years was to upgrade security at electorate offices.
“[They] are the places where we’re most identifiable and where Helen was when this attack occurred,” Paterson said. “They are not well protected.”
COURT APPEARANCE: The 43-year-old suspect in the attack on Helen Haines, Brendan Nugent, appeared briefly in court Wednesday morning and did not apply for bail. Nugent sat impassively in the Wangaratta courtroom — read a full account from The Guardian’s Caitlin Cassidy. Nugent won’t face court again until Feb. 4.
STATE OF THE NATION
USE OF COUNTERTERROR TECH TO PROTECT MPs
The Australian Federal Police wants to bolster protection of parliamentarians by using technological capabilities including artificial intelligence developed for counterterrorism and detecting radicalization online and applying them to threats against public officials.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said Wednesday that given the “increasing volume of online communication” the AFP needed to better utilize technology to keep MPs safe.
An AFP spokesperson told POLITICO that Barrett was referring to the joint AFP and Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation Counter Terrorism Online Centre, which the Australian government announced in May. It will begin operations within weeks, using AI tools to detect and disrupt extremist recruiters.
Read Paul Karp’s full story about the AFP plan to adapt this model for parliamentarians’ safety.
POLITICAL VIOLENCE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE … RADICALIZATION HEARING
MEANWHILE: The AFP was fronting the parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security as it looks into the causes of radicalization. Assistant Commissioner Sandra Booth warned that the benefits of AI came with serious downsides.
“It used to take months or years to radicalize individuals, but now, in some cases, it is happening within days,” she said.
Nature of the threat: ASIO currently categorizes extremist incidents in two vague categories — religiously motivated and ideologically motivated. ASIO Deputy Director-General Claire McGuinness said the first currently takes up two-thirds of the agency’s caseload, with Sunni Islamist extremism the lion’s share of that threat.
“A very significant number of our priority cases would have an online component,” she said. “The internet [is] one of the most potent incubators of extremism.”
BELL APOLOGIZES: First it was Pauline Hanson apologizing for her cartoon’s vagina prolapse jibe at Jacqui Lambie. Now Liberal frontbencher Angie Bell has offered contrition after calling for the PM and Small Business Minister Anne Aly to be “stoned in the square” earlier this month. In a statement after the Haines attack, Bell accepted the phrase was a “poor choice of words.”
“It was not helpful or planned, which is why I immediately withdrew it and attempted to rectify this with Dr Aly. … No Australian should face violence simply for doing their job.”
THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW
Niki Savva has spent decades persuading politicians and their advisers to explain themselves. In “Earthquake” — a finalist in the Australian Political Book of the Year awards — Savva examines the upheaval reshaping the Liberal Party and the wider political map after the 2025 election. Ryan Heath spoke to Savva by phone.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Read the full transcript.
We’re in a transition period in Australian politics where the two-party system is probably not what emerges at the other end. Did you sense that in 2025?
I definitely feel that is what is happening now, and I think it was obvious even after the ‘22 election. Very sadly for the Liberal Party, they ignored it.
In 2025 I learned very quickly, or decided very quickly in that campaign, that [Peter] Dutton was going to go down. I spoke to both Andrew Charlton and Lachlan Harris because they’d studied election results since federation and found that when the vote for independents breached 25% then something dramatic would happen to the two-party system. The last time that happened was when the UAP [United Australia Party] splintered in the early 40s, and [Robert] Menzies founded the Liberal Party.
[Many] thought it would probably be best if the Coalition separated and sorted. But they split, and then there was this huge rush to get back together: Why?
There’s no recipe for rebuilding a broad church, or figuring out who’s in and outside of the church.
Well, the church has crumbled, right? It’s not like there are many moderates left, and their voice inside the party is almost irrelevant.
With Albo winning so clearly in 2025, is he entering a kind of complacency danger zone?
He has convinced himself that part of the reason Labor is where it is is because of his own genius. Yep, OK, that is part of the story — but only a very small part of the story.
The grave danger is for him to think that just because he did it in 2025, it will happen again. We are in a very different world now from what we were in 2025. There needs to be change of some sort. Maybe maybe even leadership changes.
As someone who’s worked for a treasurer [Liberal Peter Costello], does Jim Chalmers have a way forward?
A lot of the blame leveled at Chalmers has been very unfair. I did work for a treasurer, and there were times when 20 million people thought we could not do anything right.
It would be a big mistake for Labor and for [Anthony] Albanese to think that the answer to his problems would be to replace his treasurer.
I keep thinking back to when Paul Keating warned that Australia would become a banana republic [May 1986]. That was a very deliberate action on Keating’s part to get people to stop and think of what was at stake, and then it enabled him to come out with a very tough but a very fair budget.
Right now, Labor has time to do that in the next budget. Now, whether they have the guts to do that or not remains to be seen.
Your book is called “Earthquake.” Are there any aftershocks you’re sensing?
We’ve yet to see it all play out, and no, I can’t predict what will happen.
There is such volatility, such anger, and such a really nasty feeling at the moment.
I have friends, blue-blood Liberals, who are contemplating voting for One Nation, and they’re migrants. I know people in small business; they’re voting for One Nation. And the big factor is that they think the Liberal Party is hopeless, that it won’t be able to get rid of Labor.
BY THE NUMBERS
DATA CENTER BLOODBATH
40% — Drop in share price of NextDC, Australia’s largest data center provider, in first 90 minutes of trading Wednesday.
$2.8B — The market value haircut the company took after lower than expected earnings.
AUSTRALIA’S SKILLS SHORTAGES PROBLEM
27% — The ratio of occupations with skills shortages, down from 36% in 2023. More info from Jobs and Skills Australia data.
UKRAINE AID — WHO PAYS
Mostly Europe, and that goes for both military and humanitarian aid.
CANBERRA MEETS WORLD
PERU’S AUD 92 BILLION PITCH TO AUSSIE MINERS: Peru will court Australian capital at this month’s International Mining and Resources Conference in Sydney, News24 reported. Deputy Minister of Mines Mayra Figueroa is leading a 45-member delegation.
Reality check No. 1: Australia has a free trade agreement with Peru. (It helps.)
Reality check No. 2: Australia’s trade with all of Latin America is around AU$20 billion a year. So don’t read too much into the 92 billion figure.
NEW ZEALAND ELECTION OVERSEAS VOTING STARTS: The NZ Electoral Commission says enrollment among overseas voters is already sharply higher than at this point before the 2023 election, and we’re the biggest electorate outside New Zealand. Voting has started. Voters can download and upload their papers.
The latest 1News-Verian poll, released Oct. 20, puts the center-right National Party on 32% and center-left Labour on 27%.
PARTY ROOM
LABOR — DECODING THE HELEN HAINES “DIRT FILE”: One of the narratives pushed by those frustrated with the government’s approach to “turning the temperature down” in the wake of the Helen Haines attack is that the government is hypocritical because Labor advisers pimped a “dirt file” on Haines in September, as she pushed hard for them to change their closed grants program — the one that saw the prime minister’s favorite local golf club get $6 million in grants, following election campaign promises.
SEE FOR YOURSELF — HERE’S THE FILE
What’s in it: It’s a list of facts about Haines funding requests, laced with suggestive questions about hypothetical conflicts of interest.
Anthony Albanese was asked about the dirt sheet on News24 and defended her thus: “Helen Haines is a strong advocate for her community and she advocates for funding, just as the Coalition made more than a thousand commitments worth $1.64 billion during the election campaign. That’s what local members do for their local communities.”
What about the added innuendo? After being told “The Member has declared gifts of three bottles of wine,” journalists were prompted to ask if she was secretly stashing other wine gifts from Rutherglen’s “Prosecco Road” wine region.
After it was noted that she asked for $8 million for the Benalla Art Gallery in the Indi Budget Submission: “Has the Member for Indi ever visited, been a member of, donated to, or have any personal or professional connection with any of the employees or Board of Benalla Art Gallery?” (The author could have found the answer in a Google search.)
The smoking gun: Haines declared that she and her husband were given lift passes to Mount Buller ski resort. The resort is owned by the Victorian government through Alpine Resorts Victoria and was bidding for $28.5 million for two unspecified projects after hitting financial trouble.
ONE NATION WILL PHASE IN ITS NEGATIVE GEARING CAP
One Nation’s treasury spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, told Playbook the party’s policy to cap negative gearing at two properties per investor will be phased in — but no word on how long the more generous tax deduction will last.
Three-quarters can still claim: Andrew Barker, director of the housing and infrastructure program at the Grattan Institute, said that allowing negative gearing for two properties “largely undermines the point of the reform” because three-quarters of investment properties are owned by investors who own two or fewer. “You’d get a lot less tax revenue, less opportunity to cut other taxes, and less reweighting from investors to owner-occupiers.”
Matthew Grudnoff, senior economist at The Australia Institute, said that phasing the policy in over time “makes sense, you don’t want people immediately putting properties on the market.” More concerning is the plan to restore the generous 50% capital gains tax discount, which Grudnoff said “will just encourage investors straight back into the market, pushing prices up again.”
The Coalition’s Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg said the policy “doesn’t make any sense. Right now we need all the houses we can get, we need to encourage people to invest in housing more. Anything that restrains investment in housing that other people can live in is just insane.”
LOCAL CANBERRA
PLAYBOOK FEEDBACK
On Wednesday we mentioned an ABC article asking what it would take to oust the 25-year-old Labor government in the ACT. The Liberals’ ACT Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell has some thoughts:
“ACT Labor’s done their part, they’re as on the nose as [Victorian Premier] Ben Carroll,” Tyrrell told Playbook. “[ACT Liberal Leader] Mark Parton is almost as good on social media as [Victorian Liberal Leader] Jess Wilson, and if we can get him out mowing Canberra’s overgrown nature strips in his footy shorts, we might be in with a shot too.”
MOVES AND APPOINTMENTS
Shannon Van Sant is now a senior fellow researching China at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Biotech company CSL has appointed Deborah Waterhouse as its new chief executive, replacing Gordon Naylor in February.
AGENDA ASSISTANT
COMMITTEES: Defence will front the inquiry into the management of estates; unions — including the ACTU and Nursing and Midwifery Union — will appear before the AI inquiry; AGD, prime minister and Cabinet and the NACC are up before an inquiry into the community grants scheme; Housing Australia and the audit office will appear before a committee on social housing.
Lucy Poole, deputy chief executive officer of the Digital Transformation Agency, will speak about accelerating AI across the federal government at the Government Innovation Showcase in Canberra.
Australian Cyber Security Centre head Stephanie Crowe is speaking at Cyber Security Showcase.
BIRTHDAYS
Labor Sen. Corrine Mulholland, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, NSW Climate and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson.