Politicians wary of importing American ‘hyperpartisanship’ into Australia following Charlie Kirk assassinationKatina CurtisThe West AustralianThu, 11 September 2025 7:38PMCommentsCommentsEmail Katina Curtis
Politicians are wary of Australia following the US into hyperpartisanship amid a growing trend of political violence, threats and mistrust of democratic institutions.
The ugly reality of that trend seen in many western democracies was shown with the assassination of American conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk on Thursday.
Labor’s Jerome Laxale warned that Australians don’t want to see their political process Americanised.
“This hyper-partisanship that seems to be tearing America apart is not what Australians want and not what our democracy needs,” he told The West.
He wants to use the parliamentary examination of the 2025 election he’s leading to understand what was behind the increase in aggressive conduct and intimidation during the campaign.
What he saw “didn’t feel right, it didn’t feel Australian” and he wants to “draw a line in the sand, make recommendations to government and take steps to make sure we don’t mirror what’s happening elsewhere in the world”.
Liberal senator Dave Sharma said the rise of politically motivated violence was “deeply worrying for the cohesiveness and unity of societies” including in Australia.
“At the heart of a liberal democracy is an agreement amongst the body politic, amongst the citizens to settle political differences of view peacefully by recourse to the ballot box and argument and debate, but never to take, you know, an act of violence to prosecute your political argument,” he said.
“And I think it feels like those guardrails have become more fragile in recent years.”
Senator Sharma saw the need to draw clearer boundaries around what was legitimate political debate versus illegitimate political action.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed earlier this year the number of threats made to Federal politicians and their offices have nearly doubled since 2022 and warned about a “febrile environment”.
More than 20 threats are reported every week, on average.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has made similar warnings, and the spy agency is increasingly watching out for lone actors who have simmered in an online pool of mixed extremist ideologies and conspiracies.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship Julian Hill says Australians need to “rediscover the ability to disagree agreeably” and that shocking incidents like Mr Kirk’s death were a reminder not only of the importance of gun control but also the risks of extreme polarisation of society and politics.
“People have every right to express concern about policy issues, including migration, but screaming and shouting at each other is not a debate,” he told The West.
“Australia is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, and to me, an Australian is anyone committed to our country and our democratic institutions where we resolve differences and allocate power, and also to that principle of mutual respect for their fellow Australians, who may be very, very different.”
An online environment that encourages conflict and radical calls to action underpins the rise in political extremism and threat of violence, expert Ben Rich believes.
The director of the Curtin Extremism Research Network says that creates incentives for political actors as well as the general public to push more extreme views.
“People don’t really believe things can get better. They don’t believe that they can actually work with people who have differing political beliefs,” he said.
“And so in that environment, the only thing you can really expect is that you inflict harm on your political opponents.”
Creating stricter laws such as those banning nazi symbols, or trying to argue with people about why their ideology was wrong wouldn’t fix the problem.
Rather, Dr Rich said, leaders needed to focus on giving people “a reason for them to buy into more mainstream ideas around respect, tolerance, a belief that you can engage with your political opposition in a genuine way … and that it’s actually going to produce something productive” by delivering material improvements to their lives.
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