INFLUENTIAL Victorian Upper House MP Fiona Patten fears the recent violent, conspiracy theory-driven attacks in the United States could be “replicated” in Australia.
Ms Patten, who toured north-west Victoria this week with Member for Mildura Ali Cupper, and her staff copped online harassment and “thousands” of threatening calls last year after negotiating with the Andrews Government to enact laws for a state of emergency.
It became so serious that she reported to parliamentary security a video posted to Facebook where a man said he would “shave her head” and drag her up the street if she supported the government’s COVID-19 omnibus bill.
A 60-year-old Queensland man has since been charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence relating to the video posted on September 22.
“We’re a pretty resilient bunch, but I can tell you it’s been really tough on staff,” Ms Patten told Sunraysia Daily.
“We couldn’t answer the phones because of the high level of abuse – and it’s still happening.
“I still say it (the second lockdown) was absolutely necessary. We would have seen a lot more deaths in Victoria had we not gone into a hard lockdown.
“You only have to look overseas to see what happens when you don’t go hard and go fast and go early.
“We negotiated with the government to provide greater checks and balances on that state of emergency, but people were buying into conspiracy theories that COVID didn’t exist.”
She believes that Australia is “not immune” from the same sort of attacks in the US that saw insurrectionists – stoked by outgoing President Donald Trump – storm the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6.
“What we’re seeing in America … it won’t surprise me if we see similar types of protests replicated here,” Ms Patten said.
“There has been a lot of fury recently and people threatening other public officials in Australia too.”
Premier Daniel Andrews was another target of vicious online trolls last year.
A 53-year-old man is now before the courts in New South Wales accused of threatening to kill Mr Andrews in a series of emails sent in November.
Victoria’s anti-vilification laws are being reviewed by a parliamentary committee.
