E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRUE BENTLEY, HOST: Just returning to that story, there is no getting around that this alleged attack was committed against a female member of Parliament. Women in office face more and quite different forms of abuse. So, is it time to face up to misogyny in political discourse? Ged Kearney is the Federal Member for Cooper, also the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and joins me now. Ged Kearney, good afternoon.
GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE PREVENTION OF FAMILY VIOLENCE: Good afternoon. Thanks for having me on.
PRUE BENTLEY: Just firstly, your response. I do need to ask your response to, to all of this over the last 24 hours.
GED KEARNEY: I'm so sad. It's hard to talk about, actually. Helen's a great person and a really great friend.
PRUE BENTLEY: Yeah, yeah.
GED KEARNEY: (Crying) We're just all sort of so shocked. So, sorry, I didn't mean to get upset. I was determined I wasn't. But it's, we're just really shocked by this. She's such a respectful person in everything, in every way that you deal with Helen. And, you know, it's just, it's terrible.
We're really reeling from this. We're so worried for her family, for her, of course, but her family and friends and her office, you know, colleagues who were of course, nearby at the time, the community, which is, you know, they just adore Helen. We know you can't walk anywhere around Indi without people singing her praises and, you know, we're just really hoping that she recovers. Recovers as best she can. Yeah.
PRUE BENTLEY: We are going to keep people abreast of the developments in her condition throughout the afternoon.
GED KEARNEY: Good.
PRUE BENTLEY: Kearney, you're a woman in politics. Are women less safe in public office?
GED KEARNEY: You know, I've really reflected on this in the last couple of hours. I think, you know, anyone in a public position is, is unfortunately not terribly safe right now. And I know that there are threats on the safety and the lives of my male colleagues in Parliament as well. Anyone in public office, I think, has to be mindful of that.
But I think the thing about being a woman is that there's an added aspect to that. You know, the whole, as you said in your introduction, the whole misogynistic aspect of it, sexualized threats, threats of rape, you know, it's, there is an added aspect being a woman, I think, that really heightens your vulnerability in some ways and the way that you go about your business. Definitely.
PRUE BENTLEY: What about you? What has been your experience? Have you had to change the way you do your job when it comes to safety.
GED KEARNEY: Yes, definitely. You know, not taking anything away from the terrible thing that happened to Helen, because that really is our focus today. But I was elected in 2018, and I have to say that in the last two years, there's definitely been a change.
My office has been attacked, windows have been smashed, my staff have been injured at public events because things have got out of hand and violent. We are very careful about how we advertise public events now. In fact, on many occasions, we've called the police to attend with us to make sure that we are all protected and safe.
And I really believe that, you know, this has happened in the last couple of years. And for the Prime Minister to constantly be calling for the temperature of the debate to be lowered, I think is an indicator of where things are at right now. And, you know, Mike Burgess, the director of ASIO, is saying that there is a link between the political debate and the rhetoric and violence in the community. And I think that is something that we just have to acknowledge right now.
PRUE BENTLEY: The PM, as you say, has called for the temperature to be turned down. How do we do that? I mean, it's an individual thing. Is there something governments can do as well, and politicians themselves?
GED KEARNEY: Absolutely. Look, I think right across the board, I just, you know, our social media platforms, I think, have a huge role to play in this. We see a lot of divisive posts, anger, hate, all put out there, influencing, you know, vulnerable people who, I guess, are susceptible to these messages that give them agency sometimes to be, to be violent. And I think that there's been research to show that a lot of that online hate and anger is now spilling over into real life. And this is a concern, this is a worry. So, there's our social media platforms, there's political debate, definitely. I think, in politics, we need to really, really be mindful.
I think it was Monique Ryan actually said, you know, we all need Tshirts to say, what would Helen do? Because Helen was always respectful and, you know, she never, ever even, if you could disagree with Helen, you know, vehemently, but it was always respect there. And I think that needs to be. We need to look at how that works in Parliament and across the political divide.
PRUE BENTLEY: I'm speaking with Ged Kearney, who is the Federal Member for Cooper and Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence as well. Ged, do you think this. I mean, we talk about misogyny. We are hearing, since this all happened, we have been hearing about some of the vile abuse, particularly women in public office, everyone from members of Parliament to local mayors and councillors have mentioned this over the last 24 hours, the sort of attacks that they might face sometimes in public and very much online. Do you think that it could have an effect on women running for politics? And I want to play you a little bit of audio here. Tracey Hutchison rang into Melbourne Mornings today about why she decided not to run as an independent the second time in her local electorate of Nepean. Have a listen.
PLAYBACK - TRACEY HUTCHISON: One of the reasons I decided not to re-contest in Nepean in November was because of the relentless, sustained attacks on the verbal abuse, abuse online, abuse, defacing of my political materials, my corflutes, gagging, stickers on my mouth. It's not good enough to say, oh, this is just part of the argy bargy of politics, when it was deliberately targeting me in particular as a woman.
PRUE BENTLEY: Could it have a chilling effect on women putting their hand up for public office?
GED KEARNEY: Well, obviously for some people it is. We just heard a perfect example of that. But I think the Prime Minister's message around this is that we can't let this break our democracy. We can't, you know, we need to do everything we can to make it safe and easier and available for women and for everyone, you know, for men to just step up and feel secure in running for public office. And, you know, our government has done a lot in the last couple of years to protect politicians, they have invested heavily in resources for protective security. They've made training available. My entire office has done training in how to de-escalate situations, in how to stay safe. We are very good now at, you know, closing things down and moving away from the danger. There are ways that we can manage safety and the government has been committed to that. Absolutely. And there has been a big step up recently. So, you know, I think that while, yes, it is frightening, I think that is, you know, government is trying to manage that and is trying to make it safe. The last thing we want is for our democracy to be broken and for people not be able to do their jobs. I love walking down High Street in Northcote and people saying, g'day, Ged, how are you? And stopping for a chat. It gives me such a boost. I love it and I would never, ever want that to stop.
PRUE BENTLEY: Well, what, what does happen, do you think, if MPs start to retreat from the streets of their electorates, they end up with security details. We've seen this in other countries.
GED KEARNEY: We have, and I think it really separates, it creates a political class which I think is, you know, is a pity. We don't want to see that in Australia. We haven't got there in Australia, and I want to reassure people that we haven't. I still feel very safe in my electorate and very confident that I can talk to my constituents, but albeit with a few extra thoughts and measures along the way, because I think once you separate your, your elected representative from your community, then you know, it's a slippery slope in my view, and that's an incredibly important part of Australia's democracy and we don't want to lose that.
PRUE BENTLEY: Ged Kearney, thank you so much for your time. I know it's been a really tough day for you and all of your colleagues, so I do appreciate your words today on the show.
GED KEARNEY: Not at all. Thanks, Prue.
PRUE BENTLEY: Ged Kearney, who is the Federal Member for Cooper, but also the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence. It's 25 past three. How are you feeling today about it all? You can give me a call. 1-300-303-468. In a moment, we're going to change tack. We are going to talk movies as we always do on a Tuesday. We're not going to give up.