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The assault on Helen Haines highlights Australia’s growing political hostility. Recovering civility requires personal accountability, respectful debate and a renewed commitment to Christian moral foundations.

The assault on Helen Haines, in which a vehicle was used to pin her down, was a horrendous event that shocked the nation. Helen has now lost both her legs and will have to undergo a long period of rehabilitation.

Helen is a 65-year-old former nurse and mother of three from a farm outside Wangaratta, who has represented the electorate of Indi as an independent since 2019 and cares especially about healthcare and anti-corruption. No one has had a bad word to say about Helen as a human being or as a politician. In fact, she is a woman of great integrity who has devoted herself to the needs of her constituents.

This terrible event has opened up the question of the serious decline in civility in political debate.

There is a general view that the political temperature has risen too much, with extreme expressions of views becoming the norm.

We have learned that in the past year, the AFP charged 41 people with offences relating to threats against parliamentarians, and threats to candidates during the 2025 election were 17 per cent higher than during the previous campaign.

In a democracy, there will always be debate on important public issues. This debate should be robust in presenting argument, but respectful towards opponents.

Social Media Fuels Anger and Dehumanisation

The increasing volatility of debate in our country has been particularly fuelled in the arena of social media. Where once there were town hall meetings where politicians could present their views and people could question or challenge them, now much debate is conducted in anonymity by keyboard warriors. This anonymity gives licence for the volatile expression of views.

The social media world allows for debates to drift towards the extremes when people feel free to vent their feelings without any real accountability. Political leaders can be dehumanised in this process. This lowers the barrier to violence.

This violence is not restricted only to the political sphere. It is disturbing to see medical personnel and first responders being subjected to abuse and aggressive actions, often by the very people they are trying to help.

We now see signs in hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, service agencies and shops which state that abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. Clearly, such behaviour has become all too frequent. Levels of anger in people have risen and easily spill over into abuse and violence.

These are all disturbing trends in modern Australian society.

Democracy Needs a Strong Moral Foundation

Christians know the consistent emphasis of the Sacred Scriptures on how we should relate to others. We all know the general thrust of the Scriptures, which call on us to love others, including our enemies, to serve the needy, to be humble and to be forgiving.

Our society needs to embrace these virtues, which are part of its Christian heritage. It needs to rediscover its Christian roots if it is to re-establish proper public discourse.

A virtuous citizenry is the necessary foundation for a healthy democracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in his well-known two-volume Democracy in America, written following a visit to America in the 1830s, credited American democracy’s success less to its laws than to the habits, manners and moral beliefs of the people.

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued in The Social Contract (1762) that no state had ever been founded without religion at its base and proposed the idea of “civil religion” to replace Christianity. He saw the need for a minimal public creed to give the citizens the moral motivation to keep the laws of the country.

In 1794, during the French Revolution, this idea was taken up by Robespierre, who proposed the Cult of the Supreme Being. He believed it was necessary to have a supreme being who would reward virtue and punish wrong as a means to preserve public virtue.

Thus, even those who seek to reject Christianity understand that society needs to have a moral base, a base which religion has traditionally supplied. This has been what Christianity has offered to societies that have been shaped by the Christian faith. Societies have benefited from spiritual and moral ideals which can bring out the best in their people.

For democracy to really work, it needs a moral base among the population. Citizens need to strive for religious and ethical ideals for the democratic process to be truly effective. The great threat to democracy in Australia today is that the country is abandoning its Christian roots, with nothing to replace it.

Choose Respect, Restraint and Encouragement

In the crisis we currently face, there is a call for all citizens to examine themselves. Indeed, we can all take a moment to examine our conscience.

The rise of violence against politicians calls on us to ensure that, while we may disagree with an idea, we will not demonise the person who holds the idea. We will present arguments and not attack the person. It is sound argument that will finally endure in political debate.

With the rise of extreme expressions of views on social media platforms, we can all examine the tenor of what we write. We should always seek to be circumspect in expressing our views. A good and simple test of anything we write is: would we be happy for it to be read from the pulpit in a church?

We should never write or say anything out of anger. We need to calm down first and then write in a constructive, positive way.

And finally, in the current cultural climate, we need to look for opportunities to say positive things in the public square. In particular, we need to recognise that the bulk of our politicians are motivated by a desire to serve the community and work for the good of our society. We may not always agree with their ideas and actions, but acknowledging the good they have done and thanking them for their service is one way we can ease the polarisation we are witnessing at present.

It is good to recall that abuse is loud, but support for people and good ideas is, sadly, usually silent.

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Republished with thanks to Grace & Truth. Image courtesy of Helen Haines MP/Facebook.