Katy Watson
Australia correspondent
The police are calling this a “serious” incident, while Anthony Albanese is calling it an “attack” – so politicians have clearly been briefed on the nature of what happened this afternoon.
The prime minister said it was too early to understand the motivation behind what happened, but he did say that the political temperature has been rising in Australia. And his Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke backed up that statement with some figures in the news conference they have just given.
Burke said reports of threatening or harassing behaviour towards politicians had risen from 951 to 1,067 in the past year.
