Warning signs over threats to Australian politicians were rising before MP hit by car

Earlier this year Albanese himself was evacuated from his official residence over a bomb threat. As of August, about 20 cases in which people were accused of making violent threats against him were winding their way through courts around the country.In recent years, politicians here have been mailed bullets. Female MPs – and in some cases their children – have been threatened with sexual violence. A Jewish MP's office has been firebombed, a Sydney mayor's car has been torched and countless other politicians have had their workplaces vandalised.Just last week Small Business Minister Anne Aly said she had received a wave of death threats after a politician from the opposition said she should be "shamed and stoned in the square" over a tax policy.According to government statistics, there were 1,067 reports of "harassing and threatening behaviour" against "high office holders" in the year to June: an increase on last year."We tend to bury our head in the sand and say, 'Not here', but this has been happening now for well over a decade," Josh Roose, a Deakin University Professor on violent extremism, tells the BBC.Socioeconomic strain, growing mental health problems in the community, "gr...