TOM CROWLEY [HOST]: Now let's go back to our federal minister Catherine King from the seat of Ballarat and Catherine King, apologies for crashing in just after I'd asked you about Helen Haines, another regional Victorian MP. So let's go back there. How have you reacted to the events of the last 48 hours? 

CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Well, look obviously, as I said, our hearts go out to Helen and her family. She was going about her job as all of us do. Regional MPs, in particular, we are very close to our communities. We spend a lot of time talking to people, being out and about. We're very visible in our communities, and I know Helen loves doing that. And you know, she's got a mobile office caravan she takes all around the place, I used to do that as well. There's lots of things that, as regional MPs, we do a little bit differently. And I know for someone like Helen, being so connected to a community is really critical. So, to hear that she wasn't safe doing her job, she would have had a pretty low risk assessment really on her in terms of her interactions with the public, she's very much not you know front of centre when you think about the high risks and the fact that she's been injured in her community. I think you can see the outpouring of love from her community and across the country towards her shows just how upset everybody is about it. 

CROWLEY: Now the Prime Minister says he's spoken to the Labor Women's Caucus yesterday, and obviously one of the things that's been talked about in the last couple of days is the particularly heightened threats of violence and death threats directed towards women in politics. What was the prime minister's message, and how are your colleagues feeling about their own safety? 

KING: Well, I think everyone is concerned. We're concerned about our own safety, the safety of our staff, the safety of our families as well. And I think we've all been saying for a while that it's when, not if, because we are in and have been in a heightened environment for quite some time now. And I think all of us have noticed that, you know, particularly over social media, the escalation of the sorts of things that are coming through our inboxes and through our comments on social media when we're going about doing our daily jobs. I think we've all been warning about that for a while, but hoping against, hope, really, that nothing would happen, and trying to take what precautions all of us can. So I think people are saddened, shocked, angry, and also you know wanting this to be a moment. You know we can't change what's happened. We can't change it. It's happened, but what we can do is change what we do from now on, and that takes all of us. We are incredibly grateful to the support that the Australian Federal Police and security agencies give us, but it's actually a conversation that all Australians have to have about we're really proud in this country that you can actually access your politicians so easily, and I don't ever want that to change. But Monday has meant we have to think about that, and we have to think about whether we're prepared as a country, to accept the sorts of commentary that comes through social media, that does escalate people. You don't know who you're talking to or who's reading your comments. There are people in our communities who are very, very unwell, and who you know we can see can do great harm. And so I think you have to be really careful about that. So as I said, I think this really is a matter for us to now say we can't change what's happened, but we can change and control how we deal with it, and that's on all of us. It's on politicians and how we treat each other, but it's on the entire community to think about what sort of country we want to be. And you know, we can be different. We don't have to be like America. We don't have to be like some of the things that we're seeing in the UK. We control our own destiny, and they're the sorts of things I think we really have to have a national conversation about. 

CROWLEY: So you mentioned America and the UK and France. Of course, we've seen scenes in the last few days as well. I mean, does this inevitably change that to some degree, that level of openness in the Australian political culture about the accessibility of politicians. I mean, does it change the way that you think about engaging with the community and community events, or the manner that you do it? Does this shift that thinking for you? 

KING: Well, I think certainly for me, I've been an MP for a long time and pride myself in the same way Helen would have about being as accessible as I possibly can, but that has changed over the time I've been an MP. I'm no longer using my caravan to do mobile offices because it doesn't have a second exit point that you need to have if you have to get out of someone's way pretty quickly. It's not as safe. I don't put up on Facebook or Instagram, where I'm going to be in advance. Generally, I'm pretty cautious about that, and I'm cautious about making sure I've got someone with me pretty much at all times. But I live in this community as well, and that's not always possible to have someone with you. So I'm, you know, trying to be aware of as much as I can do, but we've got to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs require the very nature of politics is, you know, got to represent your community, and the only way you can do that is actually getting out and about and listening and talking to people, persuading people if you've got different ideas about things, trying to explain. It's the very nature of our jobs, so it's a really difficult, difficult conundrum. I would hate to see a circumstance where we're not as accessible, but we also do have to be safe, and I think that's a conversation as a country we have to have. 

CROWLEY: The Prime Minister talked about taking the temperature down more broadly in political debate and the way that politicians engage with each other, and he said that all parties, Labor included, can do better. What do you think that looks like in practice? Because there have been a lot of politicians saying we want to defend the robust character of political debate. It can get heated in Question Time, and the manner of engaging can certainly be robust. What do you think taking the temperature down looks like? 

KING: Well, yeah. Well, I think the very nature of politics is it's a contest of ideas, so of course there's going to be robust debate, and that that should always be the case. That's no different, you know, from you know when we're formed as a democracy, we do debate ideas, and you know they can be done with humour, they can be done forcefully, all of those things. But it's the personal nature that really, to me, seems to have escalated quite substantially. I don't think it is okay to try and hide behind satire to mock your colleagues. You wouldn't. No other workplace would allow that to occur. And I am particularly referring to the One Nation cartoons. I mean, the sorts of cartoons on Senator Charlotte Walker. She's a 21-year-old young woman, unbelievably courageous but terrific and making a great contribution in the Senate. You know, frankly, some of the things that have been said and done about her is downright bullying, and I don't think that is okay. You do not have to personalise. You know, mocking you know someone you know Jacqui Lambie for her women's health issue that she's been so brave to come out and talk about. No, talking about, you know, Andrew Hastie has a traitor to our country. You know that just the personal nature of those things and sometimes the language you have to be really careful about it. You know, we had a debate about someone should be stoned, Anne Aly should be stoned in the square. Those things are not okay. Have a debate about the issues, the policies, the context in which you're occurring. If you're feeling that you have to denigrate someone, then you know really you've lost your argument already because it's deeply personal. You don't have to do that. But as I said, it's not just us though. We've got to be much, much better. We should be kinder. And I think, you know, take a leaf out of Helen's book. I don't think I've ever heard Helen say an unkind word about a single other member of parliament ever. You know, she goes about doing her job. She doesn't have to do that. She doesn't have to mock people. That's how Helen is, and I think that's how most of us are in in our work. Robust debate is okay, but we can't. We've got to stop personalising, and that also has to go for the general public as well. You know, we're people trying to do our jobs, trying to make sure we're doing the best by our communities, and sometimes the level of abuse is just beyond what anyone should have to put up with, really. 

CROWLEY: And I should point out, just for completeness, that that reference there to a Liberal frontbencher and the comments about stoning in the square, the Liberal frontbencher Angie Bell has, again today issued a statement describing those comments as regrettable. But I want to turn briefly to your portfolio, the transport portfolio, and an announcement that you made today that Qatar Airways will be operating new international flights from the new Western Sydney International Airport. Now, Qatar Airways has been petitioning the government for extra international flights at other airports in the time that you've held the portfolio, and they've had that rejected. Is that something that they still want more broadly? What made this a different case? And can you speak a little bit about this this announcement? 

KING: Yeah. So back in May, I extended the bilateral air services agreement to both Qatar and to Emirates to link, and that's linked to flights out of Western Sydney International Airport. It's obviously something that's really we've been keen to get more international airlines into the new airport as it opens just on Sunday with the first passenger domestic passenger flight going out there. So I did that back in May to both of those airlines. What you're trying to do is open up those hubs. We've got Singapore and that is a really terrific hub, but opening up that hub in the long, long term back to the Middle East and ensuring that we've got a good connectivity for the new airport was really the focus that I've had through the more recent bilateral air services agreements. We've been expanding those over the course of the time that I've been Minister, many countries do want to expand their air services rights to Australia. They're actually something that are really important in terms of our national interests. We use those to work with other countries on a range of broader issues. And there's lots of countries who want to do that. We've been expanding them, and you know you're seeing that with places like Turkish Airlines flying into Melbourne. I think they're talking about heading to Sydney as well. But really, the opening of Western Sydney International Airport is what's seen Qatar get an increase in its air services rights just recently. 

CROWLEY: Right, Catherine King, thanks very much for your time. 

KING: Great to be with you, but sad under these circumstances.