Australian prime minister calls on politicians to lower the rising temperature of political rhetoric [SOUND]

# Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has called for politicians to lower the rising temperature of political rhetoric. This comes as independent member of Parliament Helen Haines was struck by a car and severely injured outside her office in Wangaratta yesterday. A 43-year-old man has been arrested. In 2025/2026, one-thousand-and-67 reports of harassment and threatening behaviour against politicians were recorded in Australia, up from 951 the year before. Albanese warns that increasingly hostile, personal, and violent rhetoric threatens democratic institutions and discourages leadership: