Political violence is rare in Australia, but there’s a grim history

In the immediate aftermath of the alleged attack on Helen Haines, Australians at large had the same thought - this sort of thing doesn’t happen here.

While the average Australian will rarely hide what they think of a politician, violence in politics is exceedingly rare.

It is in stark contrast to other countries.

In the UK, three MPs have been murdered in the past ten years. Four more were assassinated by Irish nationalists during the Troubles.

And in the US, four presidents have been assassinated and several others shot but not killed.

Australia is different, but the alleged attack on Haines is not the first attempted assassination of a politician.

The most notable was the murder of NSW state MP John Newman in 1994.

Newman was gunned down outside his home in Cabramatta and died at the scene.

The prime suspect was local gang member Tri Minh Tran, who himself was murdered less than a year later.

But police believed Tran had acted at the behest of political rival Phuong Ngo.

Ngo, who was serving on Fairfield Council at the time of the murder, was convicted in 2001 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Another NSW MP was murdered at a train station in South Australia in 1921.

Percy Brookfield, a member of the Industrial Socialist Labor Party, was shot by Russian migrant Koorman Tomayeff.

But there's some conjecture as to whether this was a political assassination.

Brookfield was shot trying to wrestle the gun away from Tomayeff as he fired into a crowd. Tomayeff was found to be insane.

Another murdered politician was former Liberal Party candidate Donald Mackay in 1977.

The anti-drugs campaigner went missing from Griffith in country NSW in what was concluded to be a mafia contract killing.

His body was never found.

Perhaps the most famous assassination attempt in Australia was the shooting of ALP leader Arthur Calwell during the 1966 federal election.

The opposition leader was shot at through his car window at point blank range.

But Calwell was only mildly wounded with bullet fragments and bits of broken glass. He spent just a night in hospital.

The gunman Peter Kocan shot Calwell in an effort to gain notoriety.

"Unless I did something out of the ordinary I realised I would remain a nobody all my life," he told police.

"I came to the conclusion that however hard it was, I would have to do something that would set me apart from other nobodies."

But the alleged attack on Haines may not be an abnormal event as much as the result of culminating violent rhetoric against politicians in Australia.

More than 1000 threats were recorded against politicians in the past financial year.

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the point that it is important politicians are not cut off from their constituents.

"I think it's very important in a democracy such as ours that we cherish the fact that people can get out and about at community events, go to their local shops, engage at the local footy or netball courts on the side, engage with people," Albanese told Today.

"That's an important part of who we are as Australians."

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was in agreement.

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"Our nation cannot become a place where violent attacks are normalised," Taylor said in a statement.

“I’ve spoken with the prime minister, and we are united in our view that political violence must never be accepted as part of public life.”

Haines remains in a critical condition in a hospital in Melbourne.

Her alleged attacker, Brendan Nugent, is yet to be charged.