On Monday, MPs bowed their heads for Helen Haines. On Tuesday, the Speaker was calling them to order again. 

Haines, the independent member for Indi, lost both legs after being rammed by a car outside her Wangaratta office on 19 October. Police say it was a targeted attack. The motive is still unknown. 

What happened next in Canberra is known. Her husband, Phil, asked MPs to think not only about their words but about who might hear them. A full day of tributes followed. Twenty-four hours later, Speaker Milton Dick told the House the sledging was “not even funny”. 

How politicians behave affects all of us. The public stopped treating the yelling as theatre long ago, and social media makes sure nobody can ignore it. 

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Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told Senate estimates her agency received 785 reports of adverse content about federal parliamentarians in the first half of this year, describing an “instant pipeline of hate” into people’s homes. 

Good intentions last 48 hours 

We’ve been here before. Dennis Shanahan, who has watched parliament from the press gallery for more than three decades and nine prime ministers, told The Australian’s podcast The Front that after the death of Labor MP Greg Wilton in 2000, talk of a kinder parliament lasted........

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