Threats of political violence soar in Australia’s ‘online echo chamber’

Tributes and flowers outside the electoral office of independent Australian lawmaker Helen Haines, who was deliberately struck by a car outside her office on Monday in Wangaratta, Australia. | AAP / via REUTERS

AFP-Jiji

Oct 20, 2026

Sydney – Australia’s security chiefs had warned of “online echo chambers” fueling grievances and conspiracies and stepped up prosecutions for threats of political violence ahead of Monday’s attack on a lawmaker in a rural town.

Independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, underwent surgery overnight but remains in critical condition after being struck deliberately by a car in an attack that “does shake all of us,“ Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.

National broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald reported she had lost a leg.

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