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Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Monday, October 26 . Here’s what you need to know today.
Extra security measures will be in place at Parliament House today as politicians return for another sitting week nearly seven days after an attack on independent MP Helen Haines rocked the nation.
Parliamentarians will be met with increased security, including in committee rooms, upon their return to Canberra.
Meanwhile, the Albanese government is considering fast-tracking the recommendations of an inquiry into support for MPs as part of a plan to bolster security following the attack on Helen Haines.
The bolstered security measures are one of several options on the table this week in response to MP anxieties over security.
Federal MPs will be urged to sign a civility pledge that MP Helen Haines alone had backed before she was attacked, though One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has hit out at critics who say her party’s cartoons are contributing to the febrile environment.
The case for a calmer debate was given weight yesterday when Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett drew a direct link between inflamed rhetoric and the rise in violent threats.
A day after Haines’ condition improved from critical to serious but stable , Barrett said police were being inundated with serious threats to parliamentarians that led to one person a week being charged. She announced that authorities are probing the mental health and political views of the alleged attacker.
Politicians return to Canberra today, when most of the day will be spent on tributes for the widely respected MP. Labor is also planning to fast-track a set of security upgrades from an ongoing review into the safety of politicians, as reported last week, which is expected to be spoken about at a Monday morning cabinet meeting.
Speaker of the House Milton Dick will invite MPs to speak about Haines’ incident today. Independent MPs who are close to Haines want colleagues to sign up to the “civility pledge” inspired by a similar push by the family of British MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016. Haines was the first MP to have signed up, before her attack.
Caracas: Opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado reappeared in Venezuela for the first time since December, returning from exile at a time when doubts about the country’s democratic future – and the role of the US – are growing.
It was her first appearance since the US military deposed the country’s then-president Nicolás Maduro in January , replacing him with an interim president.
Machado announced her arrival on social media, writing, “I am here. With you.”
On Sunday afternoon (Venezuela time), she strode into a church in the state of Lara, west of Caracas, to the applause of dozens gathered there.
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Monday, October 26 . Here’s what you need to know today.
