Albanese Promises Swift Response on MP Safety in Australia, Panic Buttons Under Consideration

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised a swift government response to safety threats to MPs and floated the provision of duress alarms, or panic buttons, for electorate offices, saying politicians and their staff have put up with threats for too long.

Albanese made the pledge to the Labor partyroom. It was the first Labor partyroom meeting since the alleged attack on Indi MP Dr Helen Haines last week.

Hours before the meeting, Senator Fatima Payman again criticised her former government colleagues over the lack of staffing given to her office, asking whether the prime minister was waiting for something like what happened to Dr Helen Haines to occur to her office.

MPs across the political divide have spoken forcefully of the need for more protection for their offices after the alleged attack, raising alarm about threats and violence directed at their staff. Politicians are also revealing the scale of abuse, online and offline, directed toward them, including death and rape threats.

In a long address to the meeting, Albanese said this week must be a turning point for civil discourse and how threats are responded to. He also conceded there needed to be more investment in security and safety for politicians.

Albanese said MPs have had to put up with the threat environment for too long, that the government needs to do more, and that more can and should be done. He said MPs had dedicated so much to the safety of others in the workplace and that he was determined to do everything for their safety and the safety of their staff as well.

Albanese did not give specifics, but promised a swift government response on safety, and noted numerous MPs had raised the prospect of receiving duress alarms, or panic buttons, to alert authorities of a safety incident. This was among a series of options under consideration.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke also told the meeting that the government was looking at safety at polling booths around election time.

Government sources said numerous changes were being considered, with a fulsome response and proposal likely to be revealed in coming days. MPs have raised a wide range of concerns, including greater security and hardening of their electoral offices, better communication with federal police, and resources for security at their private homes such as CCTV and lighting, all options understood to be under consideration.

An ongoing review into Commonwealth workplaces will also be expedited by Labor, with recommendations specifically about safety and security to be delivered soon.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor told his MPs in a Coalition partyroom meeting of ongoing conversations with the government about personal safety and the importance of getting it right, but did not raise any specific proposals.

Payman, who quit Labor in 2024 to sit on the crossbench, on Monday night criticised the prime minister for not responding to a request for additional staff in line with other independent political offices.

According to an internal document tabled in a Senate estimates hearing, all politicians receive electoral office staff, but Payman has zero advisers while 16 other crossbench MPs and senators shared 30 advisers. The prime minister has discretion over the allocation of personal staff, which are typically more senior advisers.

In the hearing, Payman questioned Minister Don Farrell whether the staff allocation shortfall was due to Albanese having a personal gripe with her, claiming her staff were severely overworked. She said that if the prime minister cared so much about the welfare and wellbeing of people who work in the building, he and Farrell should look into the fact that her staff were burning out.

Farrell and other Labor senators in the hearing strongly rejected the insinuation, but Payman refused to withdraw the comments when asked until her staffing request was dealt with.

Payman told Guardian Australia last week there had been a massive increase in the number of death threats and hate comments since 2024, when she defected from Labor. She said her office manager had opened mail last year containing human faeces, resulting in a biohazard team having to respond, with people in hazmat suits coming through the office. She said the trauma that inflicts on staff members is horrible and that no office or worker should have to deal with that kind of thing.